Willamette's Utility Management Certificate Program

Developing Skilled Leaders

Energy utilities are responsible for providing essential services to meet their customers’ needs. They must continue to deliver reliable energy services at affordable rates while also accommodating rapidly growing uses of electricity and dramatically reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Successfully achieving these ongoing and new requirements will require strong, effective leadership and problem-solving abilities at utilities and at other energy organizations. The Willamette Utility Management Certificate Program helps prepare high-potential individuals to meet these challenges.

UMC Program Details

• Utility Management Certificate Program Purpose and Deliverables

  This utilities management training program is designed to achieve the following outcomes:

  • Help participants develop well-rounded knowledge of energy utilities system functions, operations and processes
  • Promote shared understanding of the energy utilities industry and important issues based on relevant, balanced and objective information
  • Provide insights and skills that enable participants to effectively manage ongoing changes in the industry and at their organization

Educational Approach and Schedule

The 2024 program will be an intensive, 10-day utility management training. Eight days of in-person sessions will be held October 15-18 and November 12-15 at Willamette’s Executive Development Center in Portland, Oregon. Two days of instruction will take place via online webinars on October 30 and November 6.

Classes will be conducted by top-level instructors who are subject matter experts with significant experience in their fields. From industry-leading practitioners to professional trainers, each instructor has recognized expertise in their given topic. Guest speakers will also be invited to engage with the class on topics of interest.

In addition to daily classroom instruction, discussions and exercises, students will work together in small teams throughout the course. Each team will explore and assess a key planning topic, prepare a written report and deliver a final presentation that simulates interaction with an organization’s decision makers.

2024 Curriculum and Schedule

The curriculum for the 2024 Utility Management Certificate Program will address multiple topics, including how they integrate with each other and within the overall energy utility industry. Topics will include:

• Opening day symposium on driving forces of decarbonization, electrification, reliability and affordability; implications and outlook for the industry
• Effective presentations to decision-makers and stakeholders
• Energy resources and markets in transition
• Energy utilities industry strategy: thinking, planning and implementing
• Utility oversight, governance and decision-making
• Utility rate development and implementation
• Energy utility finances
• Negotiations and stakeholder engagement
• Mock utility Commission/Board hearing on policy implementation
• Leadership and change-management
• Customer engagement
• Final project: team present planning reports, followed by review and discussion with course instructors

• 2024 Utility Management Certificate Program Participants

  Throughout its existence, the Utility Management Certificate Program has provided valuable learning experiences to participants from a range of energy utilities entities, including investor-owned electric utilities, consumer-owned electric utilities natural gas utilities, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and other types of energy organizations. A number of energy utilities organizations send participants each year and several organizations send multiple participants per year.

  In recent years, policy and industry structural changes have expanded the range of entities that are involved in the energy utilities industry. Major new policies are being enacted and new regional industry organizations are being established. These developments are bringing a wider range of players into the energy utilities industry. As a result, there is a growing need to develop shared, robust understanding about and across the energy utilities industry. There is also a growing need for productive collaboration among various sectors of the industry.

  To meet the evolving needs of the energy utilities industry, Willamette will begin broadening participation in the program. In upcoming programs, students from additional types of organizations and individuals may be invited, including:

  • Regional reliability and grid management organizations
  • Utilities industry trade associations
  • Clean energy, fuels and transmission developers
  • Energy utilities regulators
  • State legislators and lead energy staff
  • Government energy agencies
• Grading and Completion Certificates

  Students will be expected to attend eight hours of in-class sessions daily. Three graded assignments, a final team project and course participation evaluations all contribute to the final grade.

  Students who successfully complete the 10-day course will receive a certificate of Utility Management Certificate Program completion from Willamette’s MBA Program. Students may also be eligible for graduate academic credit.

• Tuition

  Tuition for the Fall 2024 Utility Management Certificate Program is $6,275 per person or $5,750 per person for an organization sending four or more employees. The tuition includes registration fees, course materials, breakfast and lunch, and daily snacks.

• Contacts

  We are pleased to present the 2024 Utility Management Certificate Program and are looking forward to engaging with this year’s students. If you or your organization are interested in participating, please contact us!

  Charlie Black Director, Utility Management Certificate Program

  Kennedy Hawkins Director, Executive Development Center

  utility-mgmt@willamette.edu