South Dakota is a right-to-work state where rural electric co-ops, not a single dominant investor-owned utility, control most of the line work, so your employer type decides your pay ladder more than your seniority does. Pay sits mid-pack nationally and buys more here than the number suggests. Winter is the storm season: ice loading and blizzard restoration on long rural feeders, where a single outage can mean a hundred-mile drive before you set a hook.
Transmission cooperative feeding member co-ops across the eastern half of the state.
Investor-owned distribution and transmission concentrated around Sioux Falls.
Serves Rapid City and the western territory against the Black Hills.
Northeast corner utility with crews working the Watertown and Aberdeen corridors.
Sioux Falls and Rapid City hold the population, but the distribution co-ops covering the rural counties between them post steadily and hire local. Expect a Class A CDL, proven climbing ability, and hot line experience on the journeyman postings. The travel and per diem side matters more here than in dense states, since crews cover territory measured in counties.
It is right-to-work, and much of the co-op field work is non-union. IBEW represents crews at some utilities, so check the IBEW local finder before you assume a hall covers your target employer.
Groundman first is the realistic path here. Co-ops hire local groundmen and move them into apprenticeships, so applying to the co-op that serves your county beats waiting on an IOU posting. See apprenticeship programs by state for how to apply.
Ice storms and blizzards from roughly November through March, not hurricanes. Long rural circuits mean restoration is a driving problem as much as a climbing one, and storm pay is where the annual number actually moves.