 This is Think Tech Hawaii, the community matters here. So exactly what did you think we were going to do at four o'clock on Wednesday? Everyone knows what we do at four o'clock on Wednesday. We do Hawaii, the state of clean energy, wow, Hawaii MG Pulse Department, wow. That's Sharon Moriwaki, I'm Jay Fidel, and in between we have Colton Ching and Adam Carlson, okay, Adam Carlson, okay. And they're from Hawaiian Electric, so this is a special show. We're going to talk about what Hawaiian Electric is doing and thinking about in terms of workforce, because this is right workforce month, that's what it's about. So Colton, what is Hawaiian Electric doing that requires additional employees, additional people looking for a job going forward? By the way, Colton is the Senior Vice President of Hawaiian Electric in planning and technology. That wraps around so many things. You're the first person to actually get my title right. Thank you so much for that. Even my boss doesn't get it. So it's not so much sort of the volume of employees or in the workforce. It's really the changing nature of the workforce as Hawaiian Electric and many other businesses and industries move towards the adoption of new technology and that steady progressive march to bring in new systems, data, technology into a business is really transforming not just the business itself, but to make that transformation happen, it really requires the workforce to go through a similar or in some cases an even more dramatic transformation as well. And so for Hawaiian Electric, as we modernize our electric system, as we find new solutions to cost-effectively integrate new forms of renewable energy onto our grids, get us further removed from fossil fuels, it also requires us to bring in technologies and creates new opportunities for our workforce who can then take advantage of technology to have a very, very great career at Hawaiian Electric. I'm so glad that Adam's here with me to talk about it from both the company side, but also from those employees who are directly involved in the day-to-day operation of the grid. That's not me, that's him. Yeah, so Adam, just to put you on the landscape here, you are the control operator of the YL power plant, it's one of the biggest power plants in the state. One of the control plants. Yeah, is it the biggest? Kahei is actually the biggest. All right, Kahei. Okay, and that you were also the recording secretary for the IBEW in general, for that, our plan for the state in general. That's for our local IBEW. IBEW, okay, so that's big too. This is big, I hope you guys are appropriate with respect for our guests. We're honored to have them here. Okay, so we'll put this together and we'll find out a lot of stuff tonight. The first thing I want to, you know, I want to sort of expand on what you were saying is, you know, Sharon and I have talked about the transformation for at least five years. And, you know, and when you talk about something like that, you know, well, people say, oh, it must have happened already. You know, as they started talking about it five years ago. But the fact is that transformation is a thing that not only... It's evolving. Right, it's still happening. And it becomes even more challenging as we go forward. And it's going to continue to be challenging, not only from now till 2040 or 2045, but even after that. Can you talk about that? Yeah, sure. So the way we think about technology and the transformation that it creates, this is not getting through a single door, going from one side of a door to the other. And once you're transformed, you can relax and sort of just be comfortable in that place, right? It's really about how everything in society is changing such that once you get through that door, there's another door behind it and another door behind it. So we really have a sense that the future will always be a future where things are changing, where things are improving, where even better technologies are coming in, where we're going to learn and leverage from the things that we're able to change upon and improve upon and make even further changes going forward, right? So for all of us as employees of wine electric and really through the entire utility industry, there's a pretty big burden and responsibility in all of us to find the best way to embrace these new technologies and use them in a way that creates the greatest value for the customers that we serve. Everyone can think of all of these tech companies who are very good or are very good at using technologies to make their product or their business better, have a more meaningful product to serve for our customers, and we think of ourselves in the same way as well, right? We may be behind a bit from an Amazon or from a Google in the use of technology, but I think, yeah, just a bit, but the possibilities I think for us are even greater because we're not just a technology or a service company, but as part of us doing our jobs and providing the service to our customers, there's a lot of physical assets, hardware, systems, electric grid, the largest machine in the world, right? That needs to also benefit from new technologies as well. So I think our potential's amazing. I think it then creates a strong need for all of our employees, right? Whether they're management employees or engineers or all of our many trades and crafts represented by the union to change along the way and adapt to those new technologies so that we can actually use them for the benefit of our customers. Yeah, and you can't know what the next store is until you go through the first store. So it's a matter of identifying, being nimble and finding what the next store is gonna be after you cross through. And so this requires a certain mindset, corporate mindset. Alan or Sheema talked about that. Well, he always talks about that. Yeah. But the company is going through a transformation also. It's not just the technology or the community, it's all of us, we are all together on this. And you're talking about a process that involves everybody really, you know. So I'm interested because when you transform organizations, especially large bureaucracies, well, state government for one, for example, and EECO, that you really have a number of employees who are used to, oh, doing it the way I know how to do it and being able to shift to say, okay, we've got to do this differently. How can you think of another solution? And I know you've had some pilots and some good ones. I think we've rewarded you some more in the past. But how do you shift an entire workforce to want change or to really look for, yeah, to look for, oh, I want to go through the next doors. I got to get through this one and solve the next one. But how are some of your employees, maybe you can answer that to be able to embrace that what does it take an employee? So when you're training the young folks coming in, they're already not only just knowing how to take selfies and stuff, but you know, so like, what is it that you can tell them to do so that they're in that mindset already? So they might not know very much coming in, but they have the attitude and the willingness to go forward and find new ways. I mean, have you experienced that? Or working with them? I mean, we talk about it constantly. The union leadership as far as the changing environment and the company talks about it. And so that's a conversation that we have all the time. So everyone stays in the same place because progress is coming. You can stand in the way and get run over or you can get on board and change. And I think the way that, when I'll talk as a steward and I'll talk with as a recording secretary and all that with our membership is that, not only is it changing, but you're growing as a person, individual, that skill set that you're getting now, maybe that's gonna transition to something else that you went down the road. So maybe you're gonna take it with you to the mainland. Maybe you're, you know, whatever it is that having that education, having that next title is a benefit to you too. Even though it's gonna be a benefit to the company right now, growing with the company and partnering with the company is our key because us together, you know, we're gonna fail independently. The company, you know, they have the perspective of where we're going and we have the perspective of the manpower and merging those together to have success because a company without success that, I don't know. So there's a lot of training going on then. Yeah. What, team training or individual training? What are the skill sets? You were to say, okay, high school students or okay college students, whatever field. These are the kinds of things we're looking for when you come work for us so that you can just jump right in and we can start training you in the substance, but you know, you have some stuff coming in. Let me go back to the question that you asked prior because I think it helps to answer the second question. To really take an organization, a large organization like ours, you know, the key ingredients, the critical ones that really get things going, number one, I think is leadership. Right, and we have that in Allen and it's what Adam said around how the leadership of the company and the leadership of the union working together hand in hand with a common vision which I think is the next critical ingredient, right? We need to be able to articulate to all of our employees and all of our partners and our customers where we're going, where we're headed and why, right? And that's this transformation work that we're looking to do. And Adam talked about always talking about it, right? That constant communication and answering questions that folks have about it by the leadership team through the vision that we create, I think is critical. Got to do that. Super, super critical, right? And then you need to take that and then paint a role for every employee within that vision, right? So that they feel maybe less threatened and therefore less concerned and more open-minded around how the change as Adam speaks to can actually benefit them, right? It makes their job more rewarding. It makes them a more valuable employee whether it's to Hawaiian Electric, hopefully with Hawaiian Electric but potentially with others as well and get everyone to understand how they can fit in within it. And that puts us in the best position to bring everyone along. We won't bring everyone along. I think it's just human nature in the real world where not everyone will get there but we wanna try to bring as many employees and many of our folks. That's the point I waited to with it, especially in Hawaii. You're describing a Hawaii kind of relationship, a Hawaii phenomenon. What I find interesting is you two guys are here together because let me take a moment and just react to that. So here you have Adam and he is the control operator. That sure sounds like management to me of a large power plant. What are we planning about you? And he's also the recording secretary which is a union job for the IBEW. So it seems like merged up. There's something unusual happening here. You're describing a very unusual phenomenon. So why is this different than the ordinary phenomenon when you put management and labor together this way? I think all successful companies have as a common ingredient a good relationship between management and labor. Not all successful companies necessarily do from a sustainable standpoint but in terms of being financially healthy, having employees that love their job and enjoy the company that they work for and have friendships with their coworkers, it's really important and a necessary ingredient. That I think then creates a good platform for Sharon's your second question around as we move forward, how do we bring new employees, new high school graduates or college graduates into the fold? I think with younger, and I don't want to stereotype, I'll try not to, right? But with the younger generation of the workforce by the nature of their childhood and the experiences that they had growing up, they're far more comfortable with technology than me when I was growing up, right? Yeah, don't you hate that? Yeah, I hate it, right? They're to teach you. But it requires for us recognition that there are generational differences just because of the environment. And I think we have, I think a good opportunity to take advantage of that natural comfort that new employees or new members to the workforce have to really leverage that and apply it to the jobs at hand. I think the challenge for us is how do we slow them down, right? Keep them from maybe perhaps going a little bit too much in one direction and keep them aligned with everyone else and keep, make sure they don't leave old folks like me behind as they're marching forward. They've got to keep talking to them. Yeah, the communications. The other challenge for us, I think, is that when someone who loves technology who, say, is an engineer or a scientist or someone in IT, right? Or someone who has, like we were talking about earlier, may have an associate or a college degree in a specific technology field but wants to be physically out in the outdoors in their job as they want to be stuck in an office in a meeting all day long. That's quite a few people. Yeah, right, which is my job, right? You know, how do we get them to stop and think about a company like Hawaiian Letra as a great place to actually fulfill those interests, right? And be able to leverage that knowledge and expertise they have. It's not a company that you would otherwise first think about. So I think for us at Hawaiian Electric and all of our employees, as part of our job is to really, as part of this transformation effort, to really talk about how there's all of these great, wonderful opportunities that are now before us that maybe weren't there five years ago or 10 years ago. Well, you know, if I work for Hawaiian Electric, I'd walk around with a certain level of gratification all day long to be looking up. I'd be looking at the lights. See, no matter what we do, no matter what happens here, is all these machinations and paragrations and whatnot, you know, the lights are on, that's what counts. That must give you a certain, do you look up and look at the lights? Not when I'm driving, not when I'm driving. Now watch this, I'm going to show you how high tech works. I'm going to merely whisper the word break. I'm going to have a break question. Break. This is Think Tech Hawaii, Raising Public Awareness. Living in this crazy world, so far up in the confusion, nothing is making sense for me. Maybe we can find a way, there's got to be solutions, how to make a brighter day. Ted Ralston here, a host of our Think Tech show where the drone leads, where we talk weekly at Thursdays and noon, by the way, on subjects related to the emerging technology and business of drones as they might apply here in Hawaii. Issues involving commerce and education, legislation, technology, public safety, all the things that you might want to hear about. We talk about them with local experts and people from across the country. So join us at noon on every Thursday and we'll have a new subject and we'll have new faces to talk about this most interesting subject area. Okay, I told you to come back, it's also magic. Colton Ching, Senior Vice President of Planning and Technology from my electric company. And we have Adam Carlson, who's a control operator at YL Power Plant. He's also the recording secretary for the IBEW and he's this kind of a crossover between labor and management right here at our table. Array of talent we have here. And so, this is really important that we talk to Hawaiian Electric about this because there's a lot of kids every day, kids I use it generically, leaving, you know? And there's a program on PBS called How to Keep Hawaii less Thursday, I was involved in that. One of the big questions is, how are we gonna keep them here? Because they're going, if you don't notice, they're going. So this energy, Hawaiian Electric, very promising possibility. It's technology, it's security, it's a brotherly love company, excuse me, I said that, maybe a brotherly and sisterly love company. And, you know, it's Hawaii, it has the values of Hawaii, like it or not, that's what we got. And this is our future because energy is central to the economy. You know, there's no issue about that. So, getting into the weeds, what kind of job, what kind of career is possible now and in the future? What do you think? Let me give you a couple of examples. So, one of the areas where my team has a lot of focus now is around how do you integrate effectively many, many thousands of rooftop solar systems. And in finding some solutions there, where we're actually kind of leading the nation and finding integrating solutions, a lot of our engineers now have to become knowledgeable and familiar with power electronic systems, things that our engineers in the past maybe never had the need to. So, now we're getting into hard part in the pond, hardcore hardware and software programming of semiconductors. You know, it's not something that you would, you know, normally think of, but that's a big part of what some of my team members are doing. Another area I think is a good example as you add these kinds of systems onto a grid, sensors, these smart intelligent devices, battery systems, electric vehicles. Think of all of these devices, all of the things we're doing to modernize a grid and provide options for customers with these distributed systems. Each of these things are talking to each other and they're all generating enormous amounts of data. So, for our workforce in the future, they're gonna need to be very adept, very knowledgeable and comfortable around use of big data, being able to use some of the advanced machine learning technologies and techniques to sift through just mounds and mounds of data to gain intelligent pieces of information to make even better decisions going forward. Again, not something that you typically think of in electric utility doing or needing, but it's something that's, I think, gonna be a growing, growing part of our business. So that includes, you know, computer familiarity, coding, even. Data scientists. Data scientists. I mean, big data is really everywhere. I mean, we have a lot of shows with the university and big data is everywhere in the university. You can't do things anymore without big data. Internet of things and the Internet of things are actually connected. So the question I put to you is, so clearly we're looking for best practices and integrating, you know, the one side with the other, bringing big data together, making conclusions, connections, automating everything. The question is, do we go beyond that, do you think, in the next, between now and 2045, and I'm just picking that year, no reason particularly, to actually design software, to actually take computer science scientists, so people trained in computer science here from UH, for example, and actually building software to go further on this data. In other words, indigenous software development for the benefit of a line of effort. Yeah, that's a really great point. We've met with actually several utilities, electric utilities elsewhere, who may be a bit further along than us on that. There's sort of two schools of thought. You know, one is you can go to some of the large data companies, you're probably familiar with their names because they do a lot of advertising and whatnot, who do a lot of work around big data and machine learning. You know, one school of thought is you use their products, their services, to provide a capability within your organization. The other is around, you know, sort of more incremental sort of learning as you go, trying to build that capability more internal to the organization, so it becomes sort of embedded within the day-to-day decisions that you do, rather than a separate activity for the organization. They grow your own. Right, and you grow your own and learn as you go everywhere. And we see both utilities, as well as other companies in the energy space, approaching it from either of those two ways. We're leaning towards growing that capability, internally starting off small, finding a really good case to make use of data analytics so that we can learn, and at the same time, actually accomplish something that benefits our customers with that investment, rather than just sort of a big bang, sort of hope a big investment has a big payoff five years from now, right? You want to kind of bring some of that learning and value early on. Yeah, and it's all about predictions, what do they call it, predictability predictions, where you take the analysis that you get from the big data and then you predict what's going to happen. For example, you predict demand based on a data history of that moment in time in the week, in the month, in the year, and everything else you can get, and you can actually make a prediction machine to say demand at 4.59 p.m. this afternoon is going to be X, and lo and behold, it is X, or very close. This can help you become super efficient, and that's a very local issue because you have to bring in all the local data to do that. Right, absolutely. And it's around things like forecasting and predicting what's going to happen in the future for things like electric load. That's a really good example. But I'll bring it back to maybe something closer to what Adam does in his job as a control operator. We're moving away from either preventative or scheduled maintenance of components, whether it's in a power plants or throughout our electric system, to one more based on predictive techniques. So we'll do measurements and we'll take temperature ratings or do infrared demography scans, and we'll use that data and analyze the data to help us make more informed decisions of when we should be maintaining a piece of equipment. We won't do it any more often than we need to, but we'll do it enough so that we don't end up having to just bail on us. Efficiency, yeah. When it comes to jobs, every one of those sensors now has to be installed. It has what developed, installed, maintained. So you're talking about a workforce and then it has to be able to handle all of that too. So when you increase that, get your efficiency, you're actually gonna need manpower and snapping to do that. So how has looking at from the union perspective, how has the union worked with your employees so that they all are into this mode of, I guess it's constant learning, it's changing, shifting and who doesn't do it, but how do you incentivize or other than I'm gonna be a better person by it. What kinds of things have you folks been doing from the union perspective? The partnership between the union and the company is the most important, obviously. But then going forward, when we had gone through Schofield Generator Station that is still in the testing phase right now, we had a whole new group of operators that were gonna go up there. So now this is in HECO, we don't, or Hawaiian Electric, we don't have the diesel genital type of generators up there. So we had to go through and look at the job description and all that, but- So you hired new people? We didn't hire new people. We just trained the new, yeah. So we trained our, so here you're, this is an example of saying here, look at the opportunities that are gonna come up. Maybe it's windmills, maybe it's solar farms, maybe this. This is all that's gonna come down, there were batteries, who knows. But here's an example of what we've done is, okay, we put it out there. And partnership is why it's so key is that, here we have operators that they check up, probably eight of the 10 things that you need up there. The last two, okay, how do we go through and train them so that our current staff, our current workforce, because we are a highly trained, great employees, that now they can fill that new role. And as things change away from our old steam turbine, I mean, I'm working on a unit that was built in 1947. So let me talk about old units, but it's gonna retire. So now it's gonna transition to that new one, but showing people that these new opportunities are out there, and it's changed. So do employees say, I wanna work on that one, and then they get trained on it, or sort of, I mean, how does that work in terms of knowing what's coming up, and how do you get the employees sort of to shift from where I am now and I'm gonna be trained. Do I get trained during that time and still have my job, or how does that work? I mean, cooperation. Well, you have to train and retrain people. This is an ongoing process, it never stops. And so if you can train your existing staff, your existing engineers, what have you, and then retrain them and retrain them, you have a core of very well-trained people who can handle, who can be nimble enough to handle the new technology. But there's one emerging question here, is that we have a lot of kids leaving the islands. And inherent in what you say, I think I hear the fact that as time goes by, you're gonna need more than your existing, you're gonna need to hire additional people. You're gonna be able, I think, in the end, to have the very sophisticated jobs for a lot of people who are trained in energy engineering, I suppose you'd say. And you're gonna be able to offer a large number of people meaningful careers, high-paying careers, and the prospect of staying in Hawaii and living a good life, and even buying a non-affordable house even. Or a non-affordable car. We have such a thing. I mean, that is the goal of, I mean, the way that the union looks at it is that this, these are those middle-class jobs. So those jobs that nobody's getting super rich off of, but they are able to stay here, live here, take that vacation, have a new car once in a while. And those are those core jobs that we don't wanna see being contracted in or anything like that. And that's why I get back to that partnership between the company and the union to make sure that our current workforce is always being considered going forward as things change. We are looking at staying the same, growing in different areas, but it's because it is so fluid these days. But I'd like to post this to you, Colton. So if I become more efficient, I as an organization become more efficient. And my software is more leveraged now. And it handles in-house and out-house and engagement with other people's facilities and all this. And it sort of does this kind of transmission of information back and forth. And the whole thing becomes a connected grid, if you will. Do I need more people going forward? I mean, can you say as the senior vice president of planning, can you say that we are going to need X number of people or X number of waves of people at a certain point in the future? Or is it unknown at this point? Yeah, I think this is what you're saying, Adams, but do tell me if it's not. I don't want to put words in your mouth. But I think really what the reality of the future will be, as Adam points out, there's going to be new jobs with new skills to do things that you truly never had to do before, with some of these new technologies, all these communication systems, the data work. So those will be areas of growth of employment in these parts of the business. But I think at the same time, there's this real recognition that there are going to be, with the introduction of technology, there are going to be things that today may be more manually oriented, will be more automated. And in those particular areas, they may be lesser of a need for a certain amount of volume. As it is in so many other industries. Yeah, so it's hard to say whether on a total net basis we're going to grow or we're going to shrink or whether we're going to stay the same. The jobs will get more expert. Yeah, careers will get better. It's going to require definitely a change and a different set of skill sets for our employees. I think it will be more enjoyable. I think it will be more rewarding. Hopefully it means less meetings, which I truly rate. But it is definitely one where it's going to change. And I truly hope, and I think you guys know I have a 10-year-old son, I truly hope that we can get to that point where our kids today or those that will be graduating from high school or college in a few years have that choice to come back to Hawaii and make that choice where they're not giving up an opportunity to have a great financial future and a great professional career. We got a list of what that job is. I wanted them to have the ability to make the choice to get all of that here in Hawaii, whether it's working for Hawaiian Electric or whether it's working for any Hawaii company. And there are all kinds of contractors you deal with, so it isn't necessarily the main company either. So let me close or at least ask my last question then Sharon can close. My last question is, there's camera one with the red light on it. And that represents all our listeners now and in the future. So Adam, can you tell them, the kids now who are listening, how they ought to see this, how they ought to, if they're interested, how they ought to fashion their lives, what they should study and do, and what kind of minds that set they should have in terms of the possibility of working in energy in Hawaii in the years to come. I would say that you're looking at getting that knowledge base of an electrical, mechanical, technical, it doesn't have to be specific to just one area, but to try to have a broad range, especially if you're looking at coming into the trades and crafts side of it with operations, maintenance, that kind of a thing. And the key is get in the company. I mean, that is probably the most thing. Even if it isn't exactly what you wanna do, obviously you wanna, even in internship or something, getting your foot in the company because once you're there, the company will, you'll have the opportunity to move around. So it might not be the exact job that you're planning in the future, that wind turbine operator or whatever it might be, but getting in there and then working towards that. So I think a broad knowledge base is ideal. Colton, how much of what Adam said you agree with? So I lived what Adam said. So I joined Hawaiian Electric when I was 23 years old. And I joined the team as an engineer, as I'm a mechanical engineer. So I was very focused on the mechanical systems and the power plants. And what Adam says is right. One of the great things about working for Hawaiian Electric is that because we are a large organization that does such a diverse set of things, that as an engineer, I had an opportunity to work in so many different places, different parts of the organization, even if it really wasn't an engineer's job, right? The company still creates these opportunities, leveraging what you know from that job that you had prior and apply it to the job going forward. And as an employee of Hawaiian Electric, it's so rewarding to be able to learn as I continue to further my career in this company, right? It's the greatest gift that the company has given to me. This ability to continuously learn a bunch of whole bunch of different things. It's changed the world. It's a side benefit. It's a side benefit. But I think Adam's got his spot on that nimbleness, that desire to always learn something new and always having that continuous next different challenge I think is a great motivator, it's also a great reward for employees. And so I think that's a wonderful way to think about a career at Hawaiian Electric. Sharon, time for you to wrap up now. So you've got that kids out, it's the place to work, go to Hawaiian Electric. It's more than you ever thought there existed. But I really appreciate Colton and Adam coming because I think when we look at industry, when we look at keeping our kids here and not losing them to the mainland, what you said is spot on. Colton is how do we keep them here? It's meaningful jobs that they can make enough money to get a house to live here and grow their own kids. So I really would like you to come back when you're closer to opening the next door or even before then, even before then to tell us, and again, telling the kids of today that there is a future in Hawaii and how they can prepare themselves to get into the first door into Hawaiian Electric. I always say that the future of the state in terms of developing diversification is technology. Well, what do you think energy is? Yeah, technology. Technology. Thank you Colton. Thank you very much. Thank you for having us. Come back again. Thank you very much for having us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay.