---
title: "Power Distributor and Dispatcher"
description: "Coordinate, regulate, or distribute electricity or steam."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-distributor-and-dispatcher"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Power Distributor and Dispatcher

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-8012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-8012.00

Coordinate, regulate, or distribute electricity or steam.

Also advertised as: Control Area Operator; Control Operator; Dispatcher; Distribution System Dispatcher (DSD); DSO (Distribution System Operator); Electric System Operator; Power System Dispatcher; Power System Operator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $106,730 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $51.31/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $72,440 to $154,270, with the middle half between $90,200 and $130,940
- **Total US employment:** 8,520
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 13/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 8,520 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $72,440 |
| 25th | $90,200 |
| 50th (median) | $106,730 |
| 75th | $130,940 |
| 90th | $154,270 |
| Mean (average) | $111,320 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $144,710 | $135,227 | 380 |
| NY | $139,390 | $129,159 | 150 |
| NV | $138,300 | $138,329 | 100 |
| CA | $137,570 | $124,250 | 670 |
| OR | $137,490 | $133,019 | 340 |
| ID | $136,550 | $142,993 | 60 |
| SD | $130,270 | $147,055 | 30 |
| IN | $129,080 | $138,306 | 90 |
| NJ | $128,220 | $117,844 | 330 |
| ME | $121,520 | $125,214 | 100 |
| MA | $121,010 | $114,423 | 390 |
| WY | $120,210 | $129,689 | 70 |
| AR | $117,370 | $135,006 | 210 |
| KS | $116,810 | $129,691 | 90 |
| MI | $116,780 | $121,371 | 450 |

23 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 38 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-distributor-and-dispatcher/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/power-distributor-and-dispatcher.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 8,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 8,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 100 jobs, or +1.2%. Slower than average: 1.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 700 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 40.3% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 24.1% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 21.6% |
| Some College Courses | 8.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 5.6% |

## What the work involves

- Control, monitor, or operate equipment that regulates or distributes electricity or steam, using data obtained from instruments or computers.
- Distribute or regulate the flow of power between entities, such as generating stations, substations, distribution lines, or users, keeping track of the status of circuits or connections.
- Track conditions that could affect power needs, such as changes in the weather, and adjust equipment to meet any anticipated changes.
- Respond to emergencies, such as transformer or transmission line failures, and route current around affected areas.
- Coordinate with engineers, planners, field personnel, or other utility workers to provide information such as clearances, switching orders, or distribution process changes.
- Direct personnel engaged in controlling or operating distribution equipment or machinery, such as instructing control room operators to start boilers or generators.
- Record and compile operational data, such as chart or meter readings, power demands, or usage and operating times, using transmission system maps.
- Prepare switching orders that will isolate work areas without causing power outages, referring to drawings of power systems.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Telecommunications — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.20 |
| C — Conventional | 5.11 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.09 |
| I — Investigative | 2.43 |
| S — Social | 1.98 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 92.0 |
| ESTJ | 84.4 |
| ISFJ | 78.2 |
| ISTP | 69.7 |
| ESFJ | 63.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Power Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-plant-operator) — median $102,040
- [Electrical and Electronics Repairer, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-repairer-powerhouse-substation-and-relay) — median $103,020
- [Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator) — median $78,620
- [Hydroelectric Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydroelectric-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Electrical and Electronics Repairer, Commercial and Industrial Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-repairer-commercial-and-industrial-equipment) — median $74,090
- [Gas Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-plant-operator) — median $87,820
- [Geothermal Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geothermal-technician) — median $49,230
- [Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronic-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $78,190
- [Electrical and Electronics Installer and Repairer, Transportation Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-installer-and-repairer-transportation-equipment) — median $84,890
- [Biomass Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biomass-plant-technician) — median $102,040

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/power-distributor-and-dispatcher