Brannon Nichols is a lineworker and former business representative for IBEW 1547, Alaska’s statewide local for inside electricians, outside line journeymen and telecom techs.
Wanting a break from working in temperatures down to –30°F, he’s sought work in warmer climes. He also represents a common paradigm of accomplished journeymen who take on assignments around the world, where local workforces may not possess the same skillsets.
Contract work in Guam
Nichols soon discovered that heat and humidity are also tough on the body, but he insists the chance to work in new environments and experience other cultures is worth it. In recent years, he’s performed maintenance and restoration work at a U.S. military base in Guam.
“There’s plenty of work there and the money is good,” he said.
That’s due to an influx of federal dollars for maintenance and upgrades, as well as closure of a military base in Okinawa, Japan. Guam provides access to Russia, Southeast Asia, China and North Korea, Nichols said.
The electrical contractor that hired Nichols had managed to ship cranes and derricks overseas by barge to Guam. The expensive process took nearly three weeks and secured future business and significant work for Nichols, who spent his off-hours deep-sea diving and exploring sunken ships.
While making repairs after a typhoon, Nichols worked with crews that, he said, “normally just maintain the base infrastructure and don’t have the skills to do new construction or troubleshoot.”
At times, the situation grew frustrating, but Nichols said, “If there’s enough money, most people will put up with some baloney. Among stormchasers, there’s always a lot of talk about altruism and helping others, but most people would leave their Superman capes at home if not for the money.”
Volunteer work in Haiti
Even so, like other journeymen who travel the world, Nichols is altruistic. He used vacation time in 2013 and 2016 to perform storm restoration work and expand the grid in Haiti.
While roughly 60% of the population in Haiti lives below the poverty line, according to the U.N., Nichols loved his time there, adding that the experience caused him to develop a taste for Haitian-style fried plantains.
Nichols explained that many residents do not have easy access to electricity for things we take for granted, such as refrigeration.
“Men would show up on bikes with blocks of ice buried under sawdust, and that’s what they would use for keeping your water cold. There were entire villages that never had power for refrigeration. People cooked every night over open fires,” he said.

Nichols served as a volunteer foreman, overseeing local workers who had installed power lines to villages surrounding a large industrial park constructed with U.S. recovery funds. The 10-square-block area surrounded by a cyclone fence and topped by razor wire was equipped with a power-generating plant serving manufacturing businesses.
A Sherwin-Williams paint factory had set up in the complex, with a handful of other large concerns, Nichols said, using generation capacity. National Rural Electric Cooperative Association International began taking the lines to farms and villages in an effort supported by local governments. The plan was to build line extensions to several communities while increasing the generation facility’s efficiency.
Stark reality
“I was there teaching locals to be linemen,” Nichols said, “but when I returned for my second trip, the first day back they did something very unsafe.”
A crew member de-energized a line and the crew just started working without testing or installing grounds. Nichols knew that if he were injured, he would be airlifted to a medical facility, but the local workers would not. That made it even more important to educate them about the importance of safety best practices.
IBEW journeymen who travel abroad, like Nichols, do their best to instruct local crews. However, while local workers possess skills such as drilling holes and climbing poles, they often do not have formal training on topics such as electrical theory and best practices that could help them stay safe.
“Storm companies hire random journeymen all the time, but they’re all IBEW, so at least there are standards and consistency,” Nichols said. “I would say unless it’s a super long-term project or ongoing maintenance, it’s better to bring trained people in to get the job done.”
Paradigm shift in Puerto Rico
In the wake of Hurricane Maria, which in 2017 killed nearly 3,000 residents and left the island without power for 11 months, IBEW journeymen from the U.S. mainland continue to perform storm restoration. What became known as “the longest power outage in American history” exposed Puerto Rico’s underdeveloped and poorly maintained electrical grid. It also yielded $1.8 billion in FEMA dollars for grid repair.
Other hurricanes have followed. In August 2024, Hurricane Ernesto knocked out power to one-third of the island. Amid layers of U.S.-funded reconstruction efforts, the old paradigm of journeymen/foremen working with crews of local workers with less training is gradually starting to shift. Puerto Rican residents are being trained as apprentices.
“We can do business in Puerto Rico and operate out of Puerto Rico,” said Stephen Gaines, chapter executive for the Southeastern Line Constructors Chapter NECA (SLCC). “We have three new Puerto Rican members. We’re supporting contract work there and building a skilled local workforce.”
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Puerto Rican line apprentices from IBEW Local 222 receive field training in May 2024 at the SELCAT training center in Newnan, Ga. |
Puerto Rico has around 3.2 million residents. Southeastern Line Constructors Apprenticeship & Training (SELCAT) just began training residents as apprentices in 2022, but the effort represents a big step for the U.S. Commonwealth as it undergoes a formidable energy transition.
Once dependent on oil for power generation, Puerto Rico faces the challenge of rebuilding its grid to achieve zero-emission energy independence by 2050. Even so, solar power generation and microgrid initiatives are underway, and hardening-off efforts have included installation of steel-reinforced concrete utility poles.
SELCAT offers basic training to IBEW Local 222 Puerto Rican apprentices at its facility in Newnan, Ga. Currently, 30 apprentices are learning electrical theory, to safely climb and maneuver from elevated positions on wooden and metal structures, to perform pole-top rescue, to gain industry-required certifications and to observe OSHA safety requirements. All of this is in preparation for 7,000 hours of hands-on training with Puerto Rican electrical contractors. These apprentices also contribute to the focused rebuild of Puerto Rico’s power grid.
SLCC uses the Puerto Rico State Plan office for safety training and holds meetings four times a year.
Now OSHA is being translated to Spanish on the island. It all starts with safety, and that’s what’s happening in the Caribbean in general.”
—Mark Groves, Northwest Lineman College
“We’re 100% committed to supporting our new members and signatory contractors in every aspect of outside line work, including areas of safety training, operations and administrative education,” Gaines said.
The meetings cover collective bargaining, OSHA regulation, OSHA ET&D (electrical transmission and distribution) training—“and whatever members need to build a vibrant and successful business,” he said.
SLCC hired a translator to communicate with Puerto Rican contractors and apprentices in Spanish.
“There’s also the complex nature with tax codes and employment law there, but it’s a great thing that these contractors are engaged with the SLCC chapter,” Gaines said. “And they’re gaining a strong positive outlook in terms of developing apprentices to do this work.”
Growing work on the grid
Devastation caused by Hurricane Maria precipitated the establishment of a utility consortium that could update and operate the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority to serve island residents and businesses in the future.
The Canadian-based utility ATCO Ltd. partnered with Houston-based Quanta Services, a family of companies that provides infrastructure services for electric power around the globe, to win a 15-year contract that yielded $60 million the first year and now pays $115 million annually. The pair formed a joint venture called LUMA Energy LLC.
With support from IBEW, Quanta Services’ lineworker training school, Northwest Lineman College, established a Puerto Rican-based campus for training LUMA Energy employees. LUMA College for Technical Training (LCTT) recently graduated its first cohort of 18 line apprentices.
“These are the very first group of homegrown linemen for LUMA Energy,” said Mark Groves, vice president of program delivery for Northwest Lineman College.
LCTT apprentices are LUMA Energy employees. SELCAT apprentices are employed by Puerto Rican contractors. Both groups play a key role in LUMA Energy’s innovative grid construction, restoration and hardening efforts. More importantly, they are poised to become a new generation of highly skilled journeymen.
“As utilities bring in new technologies and higher standards, you start seeing these training initiatives,” Groves said. “Now OSHA is being translated to Spanish on the island. It all starts with safety, and that’s what’s happening in the Caribbean in general.”
“It’s exciting that LUMA Energy is working towards becoming more energy-efficient while providing the customer with safe, reliable and affordable energy,” said Juan Vargas, Florida campus president of Northwest Lineman College and LCTT’s first president.
Photos: stock.adobe.com / Kiss / Brannon Nichols / Southeastern Line Constructors Apprenticeship & Training
About The Author
DeGrane is a Chicago-based freelance writer. She has covered electrical contracting, renewable energy, senior living and other industries with articles published in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times and trade publications. Reach her at [email protected].