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‘The risks of failure were very high’: Childhood inspiration led to adult vocation for Daniella Piper

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‘The risks of failure were very high’: Childhood inspiration led to adult vocation for Daniella Piper
Daniella Piper, VP Digital Transformation/Chief of Staff. (Philip Kamrass/New York Power Authority)

Daniella Piper took an inspiring path in life, from “working” alongside her electrician father as a child to her current role as regional manager of NYPA’s Western Region and Chief Transformation Officer.

Daniella Piper provides a strong inspiration for the direction of the hydroelectric power sector and the future of the industry. From her childhood in Trinidad, where she helped her electrician father as he worked, to her current position in charge of the New York Power Authority’s (NYPA) Niagara Power Project in the U.S., she illustrates how intelligence, flexibility and tenacity can help break barriers.

NYPA is the largest state public power organization in the U.S., operating 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. More than 80% of the electricity NYPA produces is clean renewable hydropower. Allocations of hydropower from the Niagara Power Project are used to spur economic development and support jobs in the state.

I was excited to have the opportunity to interview Daniella about her background, career progression, and challenges as a Black woman in an industry that is predominantly white and male. This interview is being published in February, in honor of Black History Month (#blackhistorymonth) in the U.S.

Q: Women have not traditionally been encouraged to enter the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields of study, but you have multiple degrees in electrical engineering. What led you in that direction?

Piper: My father is an electrician, and as you know little girls are smitten with their dads and everything that they do. From a young age, I saw my dad do electrical work around the house. I would be there standing by to give a helping hand with his project, so, naturally, electricity and engineering became something I was interested in.

Q: You’ve been with NYPA for more than 14 years. How did you get hydropower “on your radar” and decide to pursue that as a career?

Piper: Once I finished high school in my native Trinidad, I went on to complete a technical degree in electrical and electronic engineering. My first job using those skills was to ensure that during construction, the electrical systems of a chemical manufacturing plant were installed and commissioned according to design and regulatory standards. Those years solidified my interest in the generation of power, as the plant included its own generator that produced electricity using waste steam from the plant. Several years later, while pursuing an electrical engineering degree at the City College of New York, I learned about NYPA and renewable sources of energy, including hydropower.

Q: Tell me a little bit about your career progression with NYPA. You’ve had a variety of roles over the years and are now regional manager of Western New York, in charge of the Niagara Power Project. How have you continued to grow in your tenure at NYPA?

Piper: I enjoy learning new things and am passionate about working with others to execute projects and improve existing processes. NYPA has been the perfect place for me due to the diversity of our operations and initiatives. Our generation portfolio includes run-of-river hydro, pumped storage hydro and fossil generation, and we own 30% of the state’s transmission backbone and provide energy solutions such as solar, storage and energy efficiency to our customers. We are now building new transmission and installing electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the state and have always been a leader in the technology and innovation space.

I started my career in the electrical engineering department – developing technical specifications for power equipment, designing systems for our plants and building out maintenance plans for our Small Clean Power Plant. During those early years, I had the invaluable opportunity to be part of a developmental program for engineers that involved rotating through various departments at three of our projects over a 12-month period – the Blenheim Gilboa Pumped Storage project, Niagara Power Project and Charles Poletti power plant, which has since been retired — learning about the maintenance and operation of these facilities from the people who make it all work.

After that, I joined the Reliability Standards and Compliance Group and set about developing a program to ensure that NYPA had adequate controls in place to ensure compliance with the NERC reliability standards. These standards are meant to ensure the security and resiliency of the bulk power system.

I then moved to project management, where I led a project to upgrade NYPA’s transmission assets throughout the state, interconnection projects where developers such as wind farms tied into NYPA’s transmission system, and the construction of new substations such as the Marcy South Series Compensation project (installation of series compensation onto an existing line that allowed increased power transfer capability of the line).

More recently, starting in 2017, I became chief of staff and vice president of Digital Transformation, where I served as a trusted advisor to our president and chief executive officer, drove implementation of corporate objectives, and provided leadership and oversight for our digitization efforts. In my current role as regional manager of NYPA’s Western Region and Chief Transformation Officer, I lead the operation of the Niagara Power Project, the largest hydroelectric facility in the northeast U.S., and provide leadership to select transformational initiatives.

Niagara hydropower
Piper leads operation of the Niagara Power Project as regional manager of NYPA’s Western Region and Chief Transformation Officer.

Q: In general, the hydroelectric power industry in the U.S. is predominantly white. Do you feel that being Black has had any effect on your career path?

Piper: As an immigrant, a woman and a Black person, the risks of failure were very high for me. I was open to learning from others, was driven to seek sponsors and took advantage of every opportunity to develop. I have been fortunate that my color has not been an impediment to advancing, as throughout my career people who don’t look like me have been willing to share their knowledge, provide sponsorship and been open to my contributions. 

Q: As a black woman in the hydropower industry, I can imagine finding peers may be challenging. Do you feel you have mentors or role models to help you, within your company or the industry?

Piper: There are very few Black women at the C-suite level in the industry. But there are a few who have broken the glass ceiling and have led in the industry (for example, Paula Gould with CPS Energy). On the whole, we are seeing more and more women of all colors breaking barriers and taking on leadership roles in the energy industry, which is very encouraging.

I’d like to give a special shout out to my past colleague (at NYPA), Jill Anderson of Southern California Edison, who was recently promoted to executive vice president, operations. She has always paid it forward and was instrumental in my career. Overall, my mentors have mostly been white males. However, their sponsorship has been instrumental to my career progression.

Q: Does your company have focuses or initiatives around diversity and inclusion that would be valuable for other companies to adopt?

Piper: After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, NYPA took a step back to consider how we could advance racial justice in our communities. At that time, I was chief of staff to our CEO, who tasked me with leading a cross-functional team to develop a plan to increase our impact. The result was our 10 Point Plan, Foundational Pillars Diversity Equity and Inclusion. This plan includes several initiatives that seek to increase inclusivity, eliminate bias in hiring and promotion, and provide opportunities for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) individuals to gain sponsorship and exposure to the wider organization — a key component of advancement in any organization.

Through our Environmental Justice program, we have increased our STEM outreach to young people, exposing underrepresented groups to opportunities in the STEM fields and hopefully sparking their interest in the energy industry. We have also provided scholarships and internships.

In addition, we have Supplier Diversity program, through which we are seeking to increase the capacity of MWBEs (minority/women-owned business enterprises) so that they can compete in solicitations. These programs include NYPA’s Mentor Protégé program, which pairs our MWBEs with larger firms. We are also establishing a training program to educate MWBEs about securing bonding. I am very proud of what we have accomplished, however, there is more for us to do.

Q: What have been your biggest challenges as a Black woman in a career where the current “face” is predominantly white and male?

Piper: The most challenging thing has been for me to constantly remind myself to “know my worth,” to place value on what I bring to the organization and to be confident.  

Q: What advice would you give to young Black women and other less-represented people considering entering the hydroelectric power industry?

Piper: The power industry is changing. Policy makers have caught up with the need to tackle climate change and to take into account making our transition to clean energy an inclusive one, and the technology is moving us forward (with much innovation still needed). To achieve carbon neutrality, renewables such as offshore wind, utility scale solar and storage are taking off, and we will see increased electrification of various sectors such as transportation.

As the generation mix changes to include more intermittent resources, hydropower will become more critical than ever. It is a renewable, dependable source of energy that can ramp up and down quickly to support changing load and, in the case of pumped storage, acts as a large battery for the grid.

The grid of the future requires innovation and diverse skill sets, such as the skilled trades, engineering, information technology, physical and cyber security, legal, finance and accounting, human resources, and even public relations and marketing, to name a few.

I would encourage BIPOC individuals to learn about the power industry (including hydro), as electricity is and will continue to be vital to life as we know it and, in turn, will continue to be a source of opportunity. A few resources that I would suggest include the National Hydropower Association and the Center for Energy Workforce Development.