Blog by Jennifer Davies, Workforce Renewal Manager, SP Energy Networks
I’m pleased to share the latest in the series of blogs linked to the delivery of our next Transmission Business Plan (RIIO-T3) in December this year. In this blog, I discuss how we are building our resilient workforce for the future and highlight career opportunities with SP Energy Networks during Scottish Careers Week #ScotCareersWeek2024. If you’re looking for a short summary of this blog, scroll to the end or jump to the top 3 key points.
Background
As a transmission and distribution network owner, we keep electricity flowing to homes and businesses throughout Central and Southern Scotland, North Wales, Merseyside, Cheshire and North Shropshire. We play a critical role in enabling the transition to a more sustainable future and enabling Government policy of turbocharging the UK to clean power by 2030, reaching Net Zero by 2045 (Scotland) and 2050 (UK). 
ScottishPower’s recent ‘Green light for Growth’ highlighted the need to “expand the green energy workforce” to “meet the growing demands of electrification”.
Our next Transmission Business Plan (RIIO-T3 Business Plan), to be published in December this year, will set out our proposed investment in the transmission network in Central and Southern Scotland for the 5 years between 2026 to 2031. We will upgrade and expand our network to enhance capacity to meet increasing demands for electricity. This is critical in enhancing energy security for Scotland and beyond, alongside helping protect society from the dangers of climate change whilst supporting a just transition by delivering economic growth through good, green jobs and community benefits.
Our people are key to the success of the delivery of our RIIO-T3 plan and delivering through this period of transformational change. The question is, how do we attract skills into our business and how can we develop more skills within the industry?
We are sharing this blog during Scottish Careers Week (11-15 November 2024) to discuss how we are developing a Workforce Strategy as part of our RIIO-T3 Business Plan, and to highlight current opportunities within our organisation.
Developing our Workforce Strategy
Our transmission license area is centrally located between an abundance of energy generation in the North and increased demand in the South, meaning our Transmission Business (SP Transmission) plays a critical role in the UK and Scotland’s journey to Net Zero. It’s important that we put adequate focus on the changes that we need to ensure the business can grow in terms of scale and performance in a successful and sustainable way.
As part of developing our RIIO-T3 Business Plan, we are creating a robust and agile Workforce Strategy that builds upon our past achievements and seizes the opportunities arising from this period of significant transformation within the energy industry.
In recent years, we have made significant strides in developing a modern, diverse, and high-quality workforce that is well-trained and prepared for the future. Our commitment to continuous improvement has led us to develop forward-looking training programmes. These programmes embrace diversity and inclusion initiatives whilst fostering an environment where every team member can thrive. By investing in our people, we are not only enhancing their skills and capabilities but also ensuring that our workforce is equipped to meet the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.
The Workforce Strategy we are developing has three clear goals:
- To recruit a workforce to meet our future growth requirements and attrition forecasts.
- To retain our employees by being an employer of choice through our culture, policies, and listening to and investing in our people.
- To broaden our skillsets through our people development in newly designed trainee programmes and upskilling and reskilling our existing and new workforce.
Ahead of the RIIO-T3 delivery period beginning in 2026, a review of our business is underway to reflect the increasing workload and ensure we can deliver at pace within SP Transmission. We will also soon be sharing another blog which will focus on Deliverability and Supply Chain Strategy.
Common challenges
Within the energy industry, the UK market for skills is a unique challenge. Our ability to understand and monitor the market is key to successful delivery of our workforce strategy and our ability to mitigate challenges long-term.
The Energy Utility and Skills Workforce Demand report (September 2024) states “By the end of 2030, we estimate that the energy and utilities sector will need to attract and recruit 312,300 new people into the workforce”.
We recognise the industry-wide recruitment challenge and we actively monitor our robust Workforce Strategy which seeks to develop and grow a modern, diverse, high-quality, well-trained workforce fit for our future.
Our approach to developing our Workforce Strategy considers the long-term, helping us to build programmes and work with the business in advance to balance skill gap considerations. It also considers the short-term, ensuring we are agile in our approach to the market helping us attract and retain the right skills and, upskill where required.
In September, our executives joined key industry leaders from Scotland and beyond at the Future Energy Skills Summit to discuss one of the most critical challenges in our journey to Net Zero: ensuring we have the right people with the right skills.
This summit was a unique opportunity to collaborate, share insights, and align our efforts to maximize impact. Scott Mathieson, SPEN Director of Network Planning & Regulation, and Jennifer Davies, SPEN Workforce Renewal Manger, took part in the panel sessions and shared their perspective.
A comprehensive discussion paper has just been published, framing the challenge and providing key recommendations for collaboration. This research was funded through the TIC LCPE Partnership.
Careers with SP Energy Networks
Whilst we are currently developing our next Transmission Business Plan for the future years 2026-2031, there are opportunities available right now to join our journey. We are excited to kick off our recruitment period for the 2025 graduate intake, which will be our largest to date. We are looking to attract over 100 new graduate entrants into our growing business. These are truly exciting times ahead as we continue to expand and innovate with fresh talent joining our team.
We’re also actively looking for specialists in sustainability, environmental planning and engineering – as well as project managers, construction experts, designers and many more. This is your chance to help us transform the energy industry and protect the planet for generations to come. Find out more about SP Energy Networks opportunities and current vacancies.
Stakeholder Engagement
As well as internal engagement across our business and with ScottishPower / Iberdrola, our workforce renewal & talent acquisition teams actively engage and share best practice with a variety of external stakeholders including Universities, the Scottish Qualifications Committee, the other Transmission Operators (TOs) and Supply chain.
Members of our Independent Net Zero Advisory Council (INZAC) will also be supporting the development of our Business Plan, scrutinising both the technical plans as well as ensuring any emerging customer issues are fully considered.
You can Register as a Stakeholder to be kept up to date with engagement opportunities relating to our RIIO-T3 Business Plan.
The top 3 takeaways from this blog are:
Stay up to date via our dedicated RIIO-T3 page which will be updated regularly with new blogs, our progress and opportunities for engagement. If you have any enquiries about our RIIO-T3 Business Plan, please email us on riio-t3pmo@spenergynetworks.co.uk.