Though rejected by LIPA board, PSEG exec Rodney Dickens oversees LI operations

Two years ago, after PSEG Long Island president and chief operating officer Daniel Eichhorn retired from the New Jersey utility’s Long Island division following its much-criticized response to Tropical Storm Isaias, PSEG offered a candidate to replace him.

While the LIPA board ultimately declined PSEG’s top choice using its contractual right of refusal, PSEG moved to install him to a high-level role overseeing the Long Island operation anyway, according to people familiar with the matter.

Rodney Dickens was a longtime former PSEG manager who’d risen to the role of vice president of asset management before leaving to join Allegheny Power from 2009 to 2011. In the intervening years, according to his online resume, he operated a utility consulting firm, RDickens Enterprises.

But his interviews with the LIPA board of trustees didn’t go well at a time when LIPA and PSEG were at loggerheads following the storm, and Dickens ultimately was rejected for the post, according to three people familiar with the matter.

PSEG in the intervening weeks turned to its contractual ability to move ahead with the appointment by filing for arbitration to pursue it, but the company ultimately dropped the case before it was to appear before a mediator, the sources said. 

But that didn’t stop PSEG from naming Dickens to a high-level management post, overseeing the Long Island division. Dickens was appointed “executive advisor” to PSEG Long Island in April 2022, the same month Eichhorn retired, according to PSEG's website. He still holds the role today. 

“On behalf of PSEG, Mr. Dickens has strategic oversight for PSEG LI where he helps to develop and drive strategy and supports all organizational initiatives designed to achieve performance metrics and improve customer satisfaction,” according to his online PSEG bio. PSEG manages the LIPA grid under an $80 million annual management contract, which expires at the end of 2025.

LIPA is preparing to put the grid management contract out to bid, even as the State Legislature ponders a bill to transition the agency to a fully public utility. PSEG has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a bid to oppose the so-called municipalization, Newsday has reported. 

Dickens' pay is not listed among the top five PSEG Long Island officials, who under a New York State law prompted by PSEG’s past refusal to disclose pay must provide Long Island ratepayers with annual compensation totals. And he does not appear before the LIPA board.

Asked to disclose Dickens’ pay, explain his role, and whether PSEG was still seeking someone to fill the interim president/COO position, PSEG spokeswoman Marijke Shugrue responded with a prepared statement saying, “Rodney Dickens is a member of the senior leadership team of PSEG and provides strategic and operational support to PSEG.”

LIPA declined to comment.

Dave Lyons, a PSEG Long Island executive for nearly a decade, is listed as “interim” president and chief operating officer of the company. Lyons, according to PSEG, also serves as executive director of special projects for PSEG Long Island.

“In this role, he is focusing on system improvements following Tropical Storm Isaias,” the company said on its website. More than 500,000 Long Island customers lost power for up to a week after the storm, which saw critical failures of computer and communications systems, among a range of highly publicized failures. After the storm, New York State recommended that LIPA sue PSEG to end its 10-year contract, and consider operating the utility itself.

Today, in the listings of the top executives in charge of its five subsidiaries, Dickens is listed as the contact for PSEG Long Island. His office is listed as the company’s Newark headquarters with the same central PSEG telephone as chief executive Ralph LaRossa.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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