Top PSEG LI exec received more than $837,000 in total compensation in 2024

PSEG’s top Long Island executive received more than $837,000 in total compensation in 2024, a pay package that represented a 7.3% jump from the prior year and included a $125,000 bonus, according to newly released pay records.

The pay and bonus increases came even though PSEG failed to meet a number of performance metrics last year, as Newsday recently reported. 

In a filing with the Department of Public Service, PSEG Long Island reported Dave Lyons, its interim president and chief operating officer, also received $279,091 in other pay last year, a category the filing said could include a housing stipend for a residence on Long Island, long-term incentive grants, special achievement awards, vehicle stipends, mobile phone stipends, housing stipends, relocation costs and contribution’s to a special Long Island utility "thrift plan." Lyons' base salary was $310,721 last year. 

In the prior year, Lyons received $779,729 in total compensation, including $285,819 in salary, $120,500 in bonus and $234,539 in other compensation.

PSEG in a statement it "fully complies with the laws and policies that require disclosure of our executives’ salaries" to the DPS. The variable compensation portion of PSEG's pay is "based on the achievement of stretch goals and annual metric target levels" while executive compensation is largely paid out of the $80 million a year that LIPA pays PSEG to operate the electric grid and "is targeted to be competitive with other large energy service providers and utility employers," the company said. LIPA declined to comment.

Other top PSEG Long Island earners include:

• Gregory Filipkowski, managing director and chief information officer, who in 2024 received total compensation valued at $761,202, including $191,800 in bonus pay. Filipkowski is leading PSEG’s costly and delay-plagued transition of LIPA's core computer systems from New Jersey to Long Island. In 2023, he received $691,532 in total compensation, including $335,500 in salary, $168,400 in bonus and $163,081 in other compensation.
• Paul Napoli, managing director and vice president for power markets, who received $709,142 in total compensation last year, including a $136,200 bonus and $290,161 in salary. In the prior year, he earned $685,917 in total pay, including $274,243 in salary, $131,500 in bonus and $142,731 in other compensation.
• Managing director and vice president of external affairs Christopher Hahn, a registered PSEG lobbyist and the company's leading external voice against a state legislative plan to convert LIPA to a fully public utility, received $502,525 in total compensation in 2024, including $282,539 in salary and a $95,800 bonus. His other pay totaled $83,844. Hahn in 2023 received $466,762 in total compensation, including $255,480 in salary, $93,000 in bonus and $80,572 in other compensation.

The 2024 pay increases come for the same year PSEG filed a claim for a lower amount of total bonus pay from LIPA for failing to meet a range of performance metrics, including scores for customer satisfaction, average outage duration and frequency, serious injury rates and computer system migration. Of the 61 metrics for which PSEG could receive a total $22.9 million in bonus pay last year, the company reported it fully met 31, or just over 50%, partially met 18 and failed to meet 10. (Two of the metrics were "reallocated" into others).

One of the metrics missed measures the company’s effectiveness for vegetation management, which is meant to prepare the grid for storm outages because of falling trees or branches. PSEG said its score means it’s eligible for only $15.7 million of the total $22.9 million bonus.

Last month, PSEG spokeswoman Katy Tatzel noted the scores "are to be considered draft," pending a review with LIPA and DPS, whose Long Island director, Carrie Meek Gallagher, is reported to be a front-runner to become chief executive of LIPA. She has previously been regional director for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

If Meek Gallagher does get the CEO nod, she could become LIPA's highest-paid executive with a potential salary of $380,000, Newsday has reported, citing LIPA's ongoing CEO search documents. Interim CEO John Rhodes makes $365,000 a year, Newsday has reported.   

Other top   earners at PSEG Long Island include Michael Sullivan, vice president and managing director of electric operations, whose compensation topped $749,317 (including a $147,600 bonus and $311.539 base pay), Margaret Keane, managing director and vice president of construction, who earned $690,898 in compensation, (including a $144,200 bonus and a $304,268 salary), and Louis Debrino, vice president of customer operations, whose compensation topped $603,000 last year, including a $129,300 bonus. Debrino oversees PSEG's call center operations, among other functions. 

Salaries of LIPA's entire workforce are publicly released, as Newsday has reported. 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.