One of the greatest things about the NECA Show each year is the opportunity it provides to take the temperature of new product research and development and develop market opportunities.

#1. Talent searching is a primary concern in the electrical construction market.

Much of the talk on the NECA 2024 show floor and content in the educational sessions focused on two evergreen challenges in the electrical construction market: finding qualified electricians and attracting young talent. With dozens of mega projects underway or underway, the need for workers is increasing dramatically. In addition to the steady demand for electricians to service “regular” sized commercial, industrial and residential projects, electrical contractors are now competing with huge projects that require dozens and sometimes hundreds of electricians.

There are a surprising number of these projects in progress, on the drawing boards and completed. At the 2024 NECA Symposium, “How Battery Factories and Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Are Changing the Landscape for Electrical Contractors,” Roy Cohen, founder of the law firm Cohen Siglias, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and moderator of the session, said there were 73 semiconductor factories underway or in the design phase; $59 billion in data center construction projects planned or underway in addition to the 2,850 centers currently in operation; 30 battery stations are under implementation or planned. Electric vehicle charging centers are also expected to see explosive growth, and according to data shared by Cohen, 28 million electric vehicle charging ports will be needed by 2030.

I He was amazed at the number of electricians these giant projects could require. Joe Kellems of United Electric, Louisville, Ky., who was also a member of the contractors panel at that symposium, said: It had to hire and maintain a workforce of up to 940 electricians at Ford’s Blue Oval plant in Kentucky.

#2. Electrical manufacturers continue to invest in new ways to help electrical contractors install products faster, safer and more profitably.

Many of the showroom’s new products were developed with this worker shortage in mind, offering electrical contractors new options to do more with less and maximize productivity on jobsites with leaner field employees. Among the products that caught my attention in the showroom were:

Keystone LED retrofit fixtures with multiple lens options include Greenlee’s Micro Crimmer with various die options including Arlington fur-covered cutting boxes for deep to shallow situations A temporary power cart and a variety of non-wire and cable products from the 2021 Topaz acquisition, including outdoor lighting, boxes and cable ties

Schneider Electric load center with inverter and battery pack options. For electric vehicle chargers and photovoltaic panels. It is now available in California and Puerto Rico, but not yet nationally.

#3. Several key markets are expected to fuel much of the market growth expected over the next few years for the electrical construction industry.

We’ve all heard about the opportunities in data centers, semiconductor fabs, electric vehicle plants, and utility grid modernization. But electrical appliance manufacturers are investing in other downstream areas for growth. For example, on Day 1 of NECA, Richard Stinson, CEO, and several other Southwire executives, provided a group of journalists and online vloggers with insight into how experts are being recruited in the above markets, as well as mass transit, airports, factory automation, commercial construction, 5G renewables and eventually 6G networks.

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