Tony Dabbene, the newly named CEO of IHI Power Services Corp. (IPSC), said the company is moving beyond the management of traditional plants to include more renewable energy projects.
“We do a lot with biomass. We do some with wind, battery storage and solar,” Dabbene told the Business Journal on Jan. 20. “There’s a lot more we’re seeing on the renewable side.”
The Aliso Viejo-based company IPSC manages about 42 power plants in the U.S., according to Dabbene.
“We’re about 14 gigawatts,” he said. By way of comparison, an output of almost 15 gigawatts of electricity is enough to power about 11 million homes.
IPSC, founded in 2012, is the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese company IHI Corp., a heavy industrial manufacturing and services company originally founded in 1853. The Tokyo-based company, which supplies power systems, has a market cap of 1.3 trillion yen, or $8.3 billion (Tokyo: 7013.T).
IPSC was specifically formed to provide operations, maintenance, management and power plant support services to the U.S. power generation industry.
As an owner and operator, IPSC said it has a team of about 600 employees, with 55 of them in Orange County.
The Aliso Viejo site is the remote operations center.
$100M-Plus in Annual Revenue
Dabbene said the company will expand its asset management and consulting group, while IPSC counts “in excess of $100 million” in annual gross revenue.
“We’re profitable, yes,” Dabbene said. “We’re developing and expanding our asset management group.”
The consulting group is also growing.
Dabbene, with over 35 years of industry experience, has served as CFO of IPSC.
IPSC said in September that it had been selected by Doral Renewables LLC to provide asset management services for three major utility-scale solar projects based in Starke County, Indiana.
“We have an interest in two biomass plants in California,” he said. Biomass is composed of plant materials and animal waste used as a source of fuel.
IPSC said a little more than half of the plants run on traditional natural gas, while other sources include solar, waterpower and biomass, as well as some that employ two different types of fuel.
As for other lines the company is pursuing, Dabbene said “battery storage is already underway.”
“We’re also looking at data center power,” he said. “That’s going to be a big one, but that’s still a development effort.”
Joined in 2022, Comprehensive Expertise
Dabbene joined IPSC as chief financial officer in 2022.
“Dabbene has also been instrumental in the development, construction and operation of high-profile IPSC projects, such as the Rio Bravo Fresno and Rio Bravo Rocklin biomass facilities, further demonstrating his comprehensive expertise across the energy sector,” the company said in a news release announcing his appointment on Jan. 14. He was also named CEO of related company IHI Power Generation Corp. (IPGC), according to the announcement.
Dabbene’s leadership legacy includes roles in the power and energy sectors, including senior financial leadership positions at UltraSystems Environmental Inc. and LG&E and KU Energy, where he contributed to managing power generation plants.