Political Changes, Younger Workforce On Minds Of SCADA, Telecommunications Experts

The new administration in Washington will mean changes at the Federal Communications Commission which will likely have a significant effect on oil and gas operators involved in the specialized field of energy telecommunications. Yet that is just one of the issues that concerns operators.

Attracting a younger workforce, ensuring the security of their SCADA systems and network separation are also high on their list of issues, as leaders of the Energy Telecommunications & Electrical Association (ENTELEC) explained in an exclusive roundtable.

The panelists include Greg Vaughn, Dan Mueller, Brian Gore and Jack Richards. Vaughn is serving as ENTELEC president this year. He is with Kinder Morgan Energy Partners. Mueller, who is with EPCO, Inc., and Gore, with Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, are members of the board of directors. Jack Richards, with Keller and Heckman, LLP, is the long-time ENTELEC General Counsel.

What are the oil and gas industry companies doing to attract young workers to areas such as SCADA and telecommunications?

Vaughn: It seems that most of the oil and gas industry is aware of the age gap that has presented itself across many of the functional areas within their companies. Most of us have active programs to engage students for part-time and full-time activities that typically occur through the summer months while they are on break. Some companies are also able to provide part-time work to students that are interested during the school year. These programs help identify strong candidates for future employment and promote awareness of our company and industry to a younger group. For those of us involved in industry-related groups such as ENTELEC this is often a topic of discussion. Within these organizations we try to offer opportunities such as job fairs or free admission to various events that we hope help promote our industry and our field to college students who are studying for technical degrees.

Mueller: Via Human Resources, we are partnering with numerous universities to provide internship opportunities for engineering students and will be working to create a similar program for technicians in the field.

Gore: Quality SCADA and telecommunications personnel can be difficult to locate. Boardwalk SCADA leaders attract young SCADA and telecommunications personnel through networking with university peers, teaching efforts and seminars at universities, and other social networking events. Students studying computer engineering learn the proper combination of computer science and electrical engineering skills required for the SCADA and telecommunications field.

Military personnel entering the civilian workforce can be excellent candidates for the SCADA and telecommunications fields. Fortunately, the oil and gas industry and the military have somewhat similar communication requirements; both need high availability services that are resilient to harsh conditions while providing multiple backup paths to ensure constant communications. Military personnel gain an excellent understanding of radios, voice, and some basic networking skills. The basic knowledge of networking has become increasingly more important, given most oil and gas field devices are IP-enabled.