The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s chaotic effort to downsize the federal workforce is having a lingering impact on power marketing administrations, responsible for marketing and transmitting wholesale electricity. More than two months on from the Department of Energy’s decision to fire hundreds of power grid workers — only to promptly rehire many of them, in some cases just a few days later — certain PMAs are still weathering staff shortages.
Latitude Media has learned that the Bonneville Power Administration, which controls high-voltage transmission lines, federal dams, and a nuclear plant in the Pacific Northwest, is facing an ongoing shortage of linemen.
According to a source at the Department of Energy, who spoke to Latitude Media on the condition of anonymity, Bonneville shared on a staff call yesterday that many of their lineman crews are operating at below emergency response levels of staffing.
That’s even after DOE deemed all four PMAs “essential organizations,” thereby somewhat shielding them from additional rounds of layoffs.
Scott Simms, who heads the public utility advocacy group the Public Power Council, said the agency is certainly under strain, though he hasn’t heard any current numbers for lineman crews.
“We’ve heard varying reports of crews being extremely lean down to the bone, and in some cases having a challenge with some of the emergency response abilities,” Simms said, though he clarified that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s an explicit inability to respond to emergencies. “Bonneville has been working on contingency plans to move staff around as needed.”
“I do think that the agency has strains on its ability to respond,” he added.“That’s something that our member utilities are watching very closely.”
Bonneville is in something of a unique situation, as a self-funded federal agency. For other PMAs, revenue collected from ratepayers flows through the Treasury Department. But at Bonneville, ratepayer money goes directly to the administration.
Even so, Simms said, the government’s efforts have created a “compounding effect” on the power administration workforce.
Many workers pursued the administration’s “deferred resignation program,” which incentivized them to essentially take administrative leave for several months before departing. That in and of itself is problematic, given that Bonneville’s staff includes power dispatchers, transmission schedulers and planners, and real time traders — all highly specialized roles that are difficult to hire for.
Linemen are in particularly short supply, both in the Pacific Northwest and around the country. That’s in large part because more linemen retire each year than join the profession. And the federal chaos is exacerbating that exact problem for Bonneville.
The utility’s apprenticeship program for lineman, Simms said, is currently completely empty — the first time in at least a decade that there hasn’t been a pipeline of trainees.
That four-year program trains high voltage linemen, including those who work on energized lines, which is extremely specialized work and can include rappelling from helicopters to work on towers in challenging geographies, he explained.
“In four years, Bonneville will have no graduates to become linemen,” he added. That increases the likelihood of outages, and increases the time it could take for the power to get back on, including after wildfire-prompted public safety shutoffs.
“We’re working really hard to see if we can get an exemption from the Department of Energy from the current hiring freeze, and that includes putting apprentices into the apprenticeship program,” Simms said.
Even if Bonneville does get permission to start hiring, though, there’s a concern that the federal layoff chaos will have a chilling effect on recruiting.
“One of the things we’re really going to have to look at is how do we attract and retain future employees?” Simms said. “How are we going to get to a place where folks feel comfortable applying to the federal government?”
