The People Behind the Power
Oklahoma’s energy industry depends on a wide range of workers, from engineers and geologists to linemen, technicians and skilled tradespeople.
“Our industry is changing a lot,” says Matthew Rahn, communications manager for Public Service Company of Oklahoma. “We are seeing a large economic development growth and looking to support that.”
Based in Tulsa, PSO is an electric utility company serving more than 587,000 customers and 232 communities in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma. Across the utilities industry, companies are looking for employees to fill jobs that support grid reliability and modernization, Rahn says.
“We do a lot of recruiting all over the place for engineers, for project managers, for cyber security,” he adds. “And linemen, we are always looking for those roles.”
PSO recruits people with expertise in technology to work in its drone program and the smart technology grid, which reduces the number and length of power outages, Rahn says.
The Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in Okmulgee has a lineman training program from which PSO recruits. Rahn says the program “provides great skills for men and women.”
The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board (OERB), funded by the oil and natural gas industry, provides scholarships for students majoring in petroleum engineering, geosciences and energy management at Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa.
“The energy workforce today is much broader than people realize,” says Debbie Pickle, chief human resources officer at Williams. “We employ everyone from engineers, technicians and maintenance coordinators to software developers, accountants and business development, all working together to deliver the energy people rely on every day.”
Williams, a Fortune 500 energy infrastructure company headquartered in Tulsa, also has major offices in Houston and Salt Lake City. The company handles one-third of the nation’s natural
gas and operates more than 32,000 miles of pipelines across the United States.
“Technology is evolving so quickly that we’re focused on finding adaptable problem-solvers who are willing to learn and embrace change,” Pickle says. “We often talk about building ‘continuous learners’ because the skills needed five years from now may look different than they do today.”
Williams invests in employee development through hands-
on training, mentoring and leadership development programs, creating opportunities for them to build rewarding, long-term careers, Pickle says.
“We don’t view technology as replacing people. We view it as a tool that helps people do their jobs better. Whether it’s artificial intelligence, automation or advanced analytics, our goal is to reduce routine, manual work so they have more time for problem-solving, process improvement and the work that really adds value,” she says.
Pickle acknowledges that change, especially with AI, can create uncertainty.
“The best way to address that is by helping people get comfortable with the tools,” she says. “We provide training and resources, but just as importantly, we encourage employees to experiment, learn from each other and share
what works.”
A Changing Energy Landscape
Oklahoma’s oil and gas companies and electric utilities are investing in technologies and practices designed to reduce waste, improve efficiency and protect the resources they rely on, and that includes looking to alternative energy sources.
“We use all sorts of energy sources,” says Rahn, who mentions that PSO utilizes traditional natural gas to generate electricity, but also wind and solar power, which are renewable resources.
“We recently retired one of our coal-producing plants to
bolster clean energy,” Rahn adds. “Natural gas is a cleaner-burning fuel source.”
Wind and solar continue to be large sources of PSO’s power. And as for emissions, “we work closely with regulatory teams and the DEQ to make sure we are following all the right local and state standards,” Rahn adds.
Pickle says that “operating responsibly [at Williams] is fundamental to how we do business.” She adds that the company is “continually looking for ways to reduce emissions, minimize waste and improve efficiency across our operations. And we’ve made real progress. We’ve reduced carbon emissions intensity by 28% since 2018.”
Pickle says Williams reinforces to its employees that environmental performance is part of everyone’s job.
“A methane emissions reduction goal is included in the annual incentive program,” Pickle says. “When everyone has a stake in the outcome, continuous improvement becomes part of the culture.”
Even more good news: Oklahoma has reduced CO2 emissions by 37% since 2006, twice the national average, according to the OERB. And since 1990, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have continued to decline as gross domestic product (GDP) and population have risen.
Fueling Oklahoma’s Growth
Oklahoma’s infrastructure expansion is creating a greater demand for reliable, affordable energy, and Williams is seeing that demand accelerate as new industries, manufacturing facilities and data centers continue to expand, says Pickle.
“As an Oklahoma-headquartered company, we’re proud to help meet that need,” she says. “We’re investing in the natural gas infrastructure that delivers energy safely and reliably. Natural gas plays a critical role in supporting economic growth, powering homes and businesses and providing the dependable energy required to support emerging technologies.”
But infrastructure is only part of the equation, she says.
“It takes skilled people to build, operate and maintain it. That’s why our focus is on three things: continuing to invest in infrastructure, continuing to innovate and continuing to develop the workforce Oklahoma will need for decades to come.”
Rahn says PSO is “supporting new growth, new customers and new economic development. We are working to add a new generation to support that.”
He mentions that the company is currently adding battery storage facilities.
“That’s a new technology, to take energy that we produce during off-peak times and store it in a battery cell,” he says. “It helps us generate more electricity.”
The Future of the Grid
When the power goes out, “finding the problem quickly makes all the difference,” says Rahn. “PSO is using smarter tools to help crews restore electricity faster.
“We are using smart technology on our lines that helps us pinpoint outages. In the past, we would have to survey potentially miles of lines to find out what was wrong.”
The Distance to Fault (DTF) tool allows dispatch teams to better pinpoint where an issue is located, allowing crews to head directly to the source instead of searching line by line.
PSO’s drone program is also being upgraded, Rahn says.
“We have had a drone program for a few years now,” Rahn says. “It’s expanding, getting better and bigger and with faster drones.”
One use of the drones is to survey the lines during a sunny day when there are no outages to obtain better aerial imagery.
“We can see where equipment is old and needs fixing,” Rahn says.
