electron orbitals are separated into various shells which have strong impacts on the ionization energies of the various electrons. for instance, let us look at aluminum. aluminum is the first element of its period with electrons in the 3p shell. this makes the first ionization energy comparably low to the other elements in the same period, because it only has to get rid of one electron to make a stable 3s shell, the new valence electron shell. however, once you've moved past the first ionization energy into the second ionization energy, there is a large jump in the amount of energy required to expel another electron. this is because you now are trying to take an electron from a fairly stable and full 3s electron shell.