1 Introduction

This report provides electricity sector workforce projections broken down by technology, occupation, and location for the 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP) developed by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). Projections cover electricity generation, storage, and transmission construction.

The study was undertaken by the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney (ISF) in collaboration with AEMO. The project was funded by the RACE for 2030 Co-operative Research Centre and by the NSW and Victorian State governments. The project has benefited from an Industry Reference Group made up of state government, industry, and university representatives.

The report aims to give stakeholders, including state governments, training providers, and the electricity industry a better understanding of the employment implications of alternative electricity scenarios. This will enable the development of appropriate training plans, allow policy development to maximise regional and local benefits, allow planning to avoid skill shortages, and inform choices on alternative development paths associated with different scenarios. There is widespread consensus that we need good quality projections of energy sector employment by occupation and location in order to manage the energy transition and maximise benefits to the Australian economy8 .

The workforce projections are for the 2022 Integrated System Plan, for three ISP scenarios and one sensitivity, namely the Step Change, Hydrogen Superpower, and Slow Change scenario, and the Offshore Wind sensitivity analysis. The projections cover the following:

• Coal generation (black and brown coal) • Gas generation • Wind (on and offshore) • Solar (utility-scale and rooftop) • Storage (batteries and pumped hydro) • Hydro • Transmission construction (but not maintenance). The report is structured as follows:

• Section 2 gives the methodology, with supplementary information in Appendices A – D. • Section 3 presents the results for the National

Electricity Market (NEM), focussing on the comparison between scenarios.

• Section 4 presents the NEM results, focussing on a technology comparison

• Section 5 presents the results by state.

• Section 6 discusses the next steps and recommendations.

Accompanying this report are five summary documents giving the results for each state, including selected Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) within that state.