LIPA's communications director to depart for new position
Sid Nathan, LIPA's communication director, is leaving the authority this week. Credit: ULI SEIT
LIPA’s top communications director is departing the state authority to take a position as the communications director for Ravenswood Generating, a Queens power plant.
Sid Nathan, who previously worked in communications for the Town of North Hempstead and Suffolk County and once ran unsuccessfully for the North Hempstead Town Council, will leave the authority this week.
His departure was announced to the authority in late July, weeks before Tropical Storm Isaias lashed Long Island with gale-force winds that toppled trees and electric lines. The storm led to more than 420,000 customer outages across Long Island — and epic communications failures at PSEG Long Island’s telephone, texting, online and mobile app outage reporting systems. The State Public Service Commission, attorney general and LIPA have all begun investigations.
PSEG operates the local grid for LIPA under a 12-year contract valued more than $67 million a year, including incentives.
Nathan accepted a position at Ravenswood on July 24, he said Friday, and his departure was unrelated to the storm. At Ravenswood, he will report to chief executive Clint Plummer, who previously had been head of market strategies and new projects for Orsted US Offshore Wind and a vice president of its predecessor Deepwater Wind. Orsted has a contract to build LIPA’s South Fork offshore wind farm and another for New York State called Sunrise Wind.
“It has been an honor to be a part of a team at LIPA for the past five years that’s been committed to a cleaner electric grid on Long Island,” Nathan said in a written statement. “And while it’s bittersweet to be moving on from LIPA, I am also extremely excited to be joining the team at Ravenswood which has transformative plans to play a critical role in New York’s clean energy future.”
Ravenswood, in Long Island City, a fossil fuel-fired plant that supplies around 20% of New York City’s energy and was once owned by National Grid predecessor KeySpan, is moving to green-energy technologies such as large energy-storage batteries.
LIPA vice chairman Mark Fischl said Nathan has a “well-earned reputation as one of our region’s top communicators and his voice and dedication will be sorely missed.”
While not a highly visible communications director, Nathan’s tenure was marked by a communications policy that some public officials criticized. LIPA’s board in 2016 approved a new communications policy that “encouraged” authority trustees to notify Nathan or the chief executive before speaking to the news media or the public. State Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) publicly condemned the move and Assemb. Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) even proposed legislation to roll it back.
The policy seemed aimed at outspoken LIPA board member Matthew Cordaro, an Assembly appointee. Englebright’s proposed legislation did not advance.
LIPA chairman Ralph Suozzi noted that “no trustee voiced a concern or a complaint on this common sense policy and we see no reason to alter the policy at this time.”
Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.
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