BESS and Talent: The Human Capital Challenge Behind the Energy Storage Revolution
The energy transition is entering a new phase. As renewable energy capacity expands and electricity systems become more complex, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are emerging as a critical component of the future energy landscape. The question is not necessarily about energy production, but about how flexibility and storage can ensure it is available at the right time.
BESS systems ultimately have a few functions: they help balance supply and demand, improve grid flexibility, integrate renewable generation, and unlock new opportunities across electricity markets.
However, while much of the industry’s attention focuses on technology, investment, project pipelines, and installed capacity, another critical factor will determine the pace of growth, and that would be talent.
The Importance of Finding the Right people in BESS
BESS projects sit at the intersection of several disciplines, including power systems, electrical engineering, battery technology, software, energy trading, project finance, construction, and asset management.
Developing a successful battery storage project requires more than selecting the right battery technology. As the BESS systems can be increasingly complex, in order for companies to succeed, they need people who are able to understand how different power systems work and connect.
Not only that, but increasingly, an understanding of regulatory requirements, project development and asset management is equally important. In other words, what is the context in which a BESS operates?
A growing demand for specialised skills
The expansion of BESS is creating demand for talent across several functions and departments. Below are a few examples of the main skills needed in the BESS sector.
Engineering and technical expertise: Professionals in electrical engineering, grid integration, battery management systems, power conversion, and system design.
Project development and execution: Individuals who are capable of managing permitting, grid connections, procurement, construction, commissioning, and delivery.
Commercial and market expertise: Professionals who understand electricity markets, revenue stacking, flexibility services, energy trading, and storage project economics.
Digitalization and optimisation: Experts in forecasting, analytics, software, automation, and battery performance optimization.
Operations and asset management: Teams responsible for safety, reliability, maintenance, degradation management, and long-term asset performance.
These capabilities are closely interconnected. A technically strong project may still underperform if its commercial strategy is weak, its grid connection is delayed, or its operating model fails to capture the full value of the asset.
The challenge of finding and developing BESS talent
One of the defining challenges of the BESS sector is that it is evolving faster than traditional talent pipelines can always accommodate.
The industry draws on established expertise from renewables, conventional power generation, oil and gas, infrastructure, automotive batteries, and digital technology. Yet transferring experience from these sectors is not always straightforward. Battery storage has its own technical risks, commercial models, regulatory considerations, and operational requirements.
If you are a BESS company, you need to decide if you want to recruit experienced specialists, develop internal skills sets and your current team, or find people that have complimentary skills to work well together.
Recruitment of BESS specialists alone cannot solve the challenge. Training, knowledge transfer, leadership development, and collaboration between technical and commercial teams will be equally important. Organisations that invest early in these capabilities will be better positioned to scale their operations and respond to changing market conditions.
Leadership in a rapidly evolving market
As BESS moves from an emerging technology to a core infrastructure asset, leadership requirements are also changing. Leadership in any industry is a key lever in increasing business productivity, employee engagement and providing value, however the sector has some specificities.
The sector needs professionals who can operate across disciplines, make decisions in uncertain markets, and balance technical performance with financial returns. They must also understand safety, regulatory compliance, stakeholder management, and the long-term responsibilities associated with critical energy infrastructure.
If you are a leader in the BESS sector, a key part of your role is talent attraction and employee retention, especially in a highly competitive environment. Some key tactics to ensure you keep talent include: creating clearly defined paths for your team. Additionally, ensuring that they are learning continuously and have the opportunity to expand their skills and experience.
Open and collaborative leadership cultures also ensure that the team you hire, stays at your organisation for a long period of time. Hiring new employees takes time, resources and money, and thinking about how to enable and engage teams in the long term is the best way to retain talent in your organisation. In order words, if you are a leader in this space you should be thinking about talent attraction, training of new employees, capacity building and long-term approaches to employee engagement. Hiring for the future, not only hiring for your current needs.
Building the workforce for the next phase of storage
The next stage of BESS development will depend not only on falling technology costs or improved battery performance, but also on the industry's ability to build the capabilities required to deliver and operate projects at scale.
Developers, utilities, independent power producers, investors, equipment manufacturers, and service providers all have a role to play in developing this talent ecosystem. From our point of view, the players in the ecosystems will be able to play a key role in the energy transition but also an important role in developing people and skillsets.
Closer collaboration with universities, technical institutions, and professional training organisations can help expand the talent pipeline. Whether it’s training of apprentices, graduate schemes or collaborating with professional training institutions, all of these approaches play a key role in developing talent for the BESS industry.
One approach a BESS company can consider is to increase internal capabilities or to create cross-functional teams which enable employees to move between departments, for example for engineering to operations or operations to commercial, depending on the interests and skillsets of the employee. Such an approach would enable the company to both attract talent, invest it in their learning and development and also ensure longer employee retention.
In the long term, such an approach means that you invest in employee development and therefore have employees that are engaged, highly motivated and loyal to your company.
In a technology industry, talent is a still a strategic advantage
BESS is more than a battery technology. It is a complex energy infrastructure business that requires the integration of engineering, digital capabilities, commercial intelligence, and operational excellence.
As competition intensifies and projects become larger and more sophisticated, access to the right talent will increasingly influence execution, profitability, and long-term performance.
The companies that succeed will not necessarily be those that deploy the most capacity first. They will be those that combine the right technology with the right people, leadership, and organisational capabilities.
Whilst the concept of “first mover’s advantage” does apply here, the companies that combine technology with the right people, are the ones that will succeed both today and in the long-term future. Batteries provide the capacity, and talent provides the capability to turn that into value. Value to customers, value to the energy transition and value to employees.
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