Energy risks losing out to other sectors on digital skills

Energy companies are struggling to recruit people with the skills to match a data-led future and will continue to lose out unless they successfully market the sector as an exciting place to work.

This is the conclusion of a new survey and report from the Energy Systems Catapult, which found 40% of companies surveyed describing difficulties in hiring data scientists with the requisite skills.

The poll found that even where skills existed, they remain fledgling and data teams are often under-resourced. The results showed 68% of data science teams within the energy sector were created within the last five years, while 39% of teams only had four members or fewer.

The report points out that data science in the energy sector is still a relatively new discipline and that sectors such as FinTech and social media have been more proactive in recruiting the most skilled candidates.

It also notes concerns that students joining data teams are missing some vital skills, suggesting a lack of guidance on the tools and techniques used in the industry. It highlights domain knowledge and coding skills as two of the most prominent skills gaps, which it says are hindering efforts to produce operational implementation of the algorithms data scientists develop.

Dr Stephen Haben, digital and data consultant at Energy Systems Catapult, said: “We expect that as the opportunities from the energy sector become more evident, there will be a rapid uptick in organisations trying to build their data capabilities. We have already witnessed the gradual occurrence of this over the last five years, and as this is ramped up, it will put further stress on recruitment and training”.

The survey showed that of the programming languages used, 95% of respondents used Python, while 40% used Excel. As expected, another in demand skill is energy forecasting, with 95% of data scientists polled identifying this as the most common modelling technique implemented within their teams.

However, the survey highlighted that a diverse set of additional skills were also desirable including natural language processing and data engineering capabilities.

Haben added: “As digitalisation drives news opportunities for services and innovation, we need to ensure that we have a workforce that can respond. If we do not demonstrate the exciting challenges facing the industry or provide the necessary upskilling to the next generation of data scientists, then the energy industry risks losing out to other sectors such as social media and FinTech.”

In response to the findings, the report sets out four key recommendations for the energy sector:

1. Enable training for future data scientists
2. Upskill existing employees and contractors
3. Reskill data scientists to better respond to emerging technologies
4. Support the creation of data science/analytics teams