Changes and Uncertainties in Power Sector Cost Jobs

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (Knoxville, Tennessee) has already laid off half of the 900 contractors currently working on the half-completed Bellefonte nuclear power plant in Alabama and possibly will lay off another 1,000 TVA employees, which, under federal guidelines, will qualify as a mass layoff.

The purging of contractors and employees was brought about by the mild winter temperatures, which lost the company about $94 million in income, as well as costs from the delayed and over-budget Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear project in Tennessee, which increased in cost from between $1.5 billion and $2 billion to an estimated $4 billion to $4.5 billion, and has suffered some project management turnover as well. The delayed and over-budget Watts Bar project affected the work on the Bellefonte project, as work on this project cannot begin until the loading of nuclear fuel rods at the Watts Bar facility.

Older coal-fired power plants throughout the U.S. are being shut down, and the plant management, operators and maintenance personnel must either retire or be moved to other positions as the jobs are simply vanishing. Although many new natural gas-fired power plants are being constructed, these facilities require less people to operate.

The Power Industry layoffs are affecting not only fossil fuel power projects, but also renewable energy projects such as wind and solar, which are also losing personnel in project development offices and manufacturing facilities throughout the country because of the uncertainty about the renewal of the production tax credit (PTC). Without the PTC incentive, as well as the already low natural gas prices, renewable energy producers will lose an estimated 37,000 jobs according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

View Project Reports - 4001656 25002189

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.