As demand for extra-high-voltage transformers expands and the power equipment market booms, manufacturers are striving to secure skilled workers. In the power equipment industry, a large share of processes are done by hand and training periods are long, making workforce management as important as investing in new plants.
On the 11th, according to KOTRA, North America's transformer market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 6.4% to reach $6.44 billion (about 8.4 trillion won) by 2030. KOTRA said the extra-high-voltage transformer market is growing rapidly as power consumption surges with the expansion of the artificial intelligence (AI) market and replacement demand for aging power grids increases.
Korea's power equipment manufacturers are increasing investment in extra-high-voltage transformer production to target the North American market, but they are struggling to secure skilled workers.
While production processes for medium- and low-voltage circuit breakers are now mostly automated, extra-high-voltage transformers are typically built to order based on customer requirements, making production highly dependent on skilled labor. The lack of product standardization is also cited as a reason skilled workers with experience producing products to diverse specifications are needed.
A power equipment industry official said, "For extra-high-voltage products, most processes are performed manually, such as winding coils one section at a time onto a crane," adding, "Because it takes a long time to build experience producing various products, it generally takes three to five years to train personnel, and as long as 10 years in some cases."
Global consulting firm Kearney and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) predicted in a report released last year that there will be a shortage of at least 450,000 and up to 1.5 million power equipment engineers by 2030 to meet rising demand for power infrastructure. Forty percent of local industry executives, when asked "What do you expect to be the biggest management challenge over the next 10 years?" cited "a shortage of skilled workers" and "competition to secure technical talent."
In response, Korean manufacturers that have entered North America are also ramping up efforts to secure top local talent as they build or expand plants.
HD Hyundai Electric, which will complete an expansion of its Alabama transformer plant in 2027, plans to increase its skilled workforce by more than 10% in time for the start of operations. The company is reportedly offering newly hired workers an hourly wage of $20 (about 28,900 won), more than double the local minimum wage of $8 (about 11,560 won).
LS ELECTRIC also built a second production building in Busan in December last year, tripling its extra-high-voltage transformer production capacity and hiring 300 additional workers.
An industry official said, "While securing skilled workers, we are increasing investment in training to raise the job performance of new hires as quickly as possible."