WORKERS NEEDED TO POWER DWP.

Byline: BRIAN D'ARCY Local View

OUTDATED Los Angeles Department of Water & Power equipment and infrastructure are only half the story behind blackouts during the recent heat wave.

Even if aging equipment were replaced, electrical customers would still confront even more widespread power failures during natural disasters.

Why? Because the DWP is hemorrhaging the highly skilled workers needed to keep the system functioning and respond in emergencies -- and the department refuses to recruit or train anyone to replace them.

In 1993, the DWP boasted nearly 12,000 highly skilled employees, who made the DWP one of the most reliable providers of energy in California. There are 8,000 of these well-trained and experienced workers at DWP today. About 3,200 are eligible to retire within the next five years. It takes a minimum of five years to train a new employee.

My union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, has proposed changes to the apprenticeship program that would move trainees along more quickly and improve the number who complete the program successfully. Management summarily rejected the proposal because it would have required hiring one or two more administrators.

The Joint Training Trust, which administers courses and training for DWP workers, has proposed setting up partnerships with public schools and community colleges to create 12- or 18-month training programs. The programs, giving preference to L.A. residents, would prepare students for civil-service exams and union apprenticeship education so they can become journeymen at the DWP.

The DWP and city civil-service bureaucrats have responded with numerous roadblocks, including refusing to fund the training trust.

In the meantime, each year since 1993 has witnessed a minimum 1.2 percent load growth. Recent news stories have revealed that DWP projections didn't anticipate higher energy use. Actually, the DWP doesn't have a clue about the overall increase in energy consumption because no one at the department has been tracking it -- and there is no way to track it now.

DWP electrical testers used to conduct random tests to ensure transformers across the city could handle the loads placed on them. The department stopped testing five years ago when many of the testers retired. They haven't been replaced.

DWP plans call for a 10-year, $2 billion investment to upgrade systems. It's true much equipment is old and outdated and needs to be replaced. But even state-of-the-art equipment won't solve the problem if the department doesn't have the people to run the system.

The DWP needs to hire between 700 and 800 workers in critical classifications right now just to stem the bleeding from the loss of thousands of skilled and knowledgeable employees who accepted retirement incentives during a 1998 downsizing.

In 1994, DWP technical workers labored feverishly, restoring power after the Northridge Earthquake and won praise for their efforts. Today, there are half as many of these DWP employees.

What if we experience another major earthquake, which experts say is inevitable? It could make government's response to the Katrina disaster look like a walk in the park.