Who is Derek Porter?
He leads DPL’s day-to-day operations, including local service operations, customer service, regulatory, legislative and community efforts in Ohio. Prior to coming to DPL, he was the country manager for AES in Panama from 2011- 2013. He served as director of business development for North America in Arlington, Va.
His previous experience includes managing director in the start-up of Greenhouse Gas Services, a joint venture between GE and AES. Derek joined AES in 2008 after an 18-year career with Covanta Energy working in operations, environmental, business/finance and external affairs during his tenure.
He earned his bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1988.
In his off hours, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three children. He also enjoys playing piano/guitar, fishing and tennis.
Source: DPL Inc.
The Dayton Power and Light Co. has high hopes for a new battery array installation that’s the first of its kind in Ohio, doesn’t plan on using gimmicks to get new customers, and is focused on reconfiguring the company for a competitive electricity market.
That’s the upshot of an interview last week with the top two utility executives: Derek Porter, the newly appointed president of the electric utility and its corporate entity, DPL Inc., and Phil Herrington, CEO of both.
Porter, who reports to Herrington, was appointed in July by the AES Corp., the parent company. His new role comes at a challenging time.
The company is facing competition in the Ohio electricity market like no other time in its history. Federal environmental regulations are getting tougher on coal combustion to generate electricity, and that’s likely to continue. DPL is heavily reliant on coal power, like the state, where about 86 percent of electric usage is from coal.
In a restructuring announced earlier this month, AES changed its global organization by consolidating operating units by country, placing DPL Inc. in a U.S. business unit along with 20 other businesses in the U.S. and making Indianapolis its U.S. operations headquarters. With the move, Indianapolis scored 100 new jobs.
Herrington will oversee separating the energy generating plants from the utility, into what the company calls a “separate competitive generation business.”
Porter will oversee the day-to-day operations of the regulated transmission and distribution functions of the utility.
There’s still a request pending from the utility to the Public Utility Commission of Ohio to add an additional charge to bills to help it transition to a competitive market. A decision is expected from PUCO soon.
“We expect PUCO will treat us fairly,” Porter said. “And we will be able to move forward.”
Herrington is assuming additional responsibilities as chief operating officer of AES’ U.S. strategic business unit, a unit that includes commercial and unregulated sales and competitive generation, which operates and manages the U.S. power plants. The job also oversees fuel purchases, transportation, and electricity sales.
Unlike some power sellers, Herrington said the utility won’t likely be offering any gimmicky plans to lure customers to sign up. DP&L plans to stick with traditional service and payment plans. “We’ll try to keep it on the straight and narrow,” he said. “We take our reputation very seriously.”
The competitive generation business, in time, could mean more revenue for the utility and more jobs locally, Herrington said. With the addition of the business, the utility expects to add enough employees to offset the 19 positions that left with the AES reorganization.
Both Porter and Herrington have backgrounds in renewable energy, but say that’s a coincidence. But both acknowledge the new battery array — and additional arrays of that type that will likely be installed — are a key component for storing power from renewable installations.
And in the short term, it’s the $20 million investment — the battery array that can function to stabilize power service — that’s the big story.
The array will mean an additional 40 megawatts of “advanced energy storage resources” located at the Tait generating station off Arbor and Carillon boulevards in Moraine. A ribbon-cutting to open the facility is expected in late September.
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