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 that 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 pay 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:

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 that 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 with one that 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 total score means it’s eligible for only $15.7 million of the total $22.9 million bonus.

Last month, PSEG spokeswoman Katy Tatzel last month noted that 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 permanent 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 total 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 total compensation, (including a $144,200 bonus and a $304,268 salary), and Louis Debrino, vice president of customer operations, whose total 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.