S. Derek Phelps is Director of External Affairs at Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C.
Prior to joining Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, Mr. Phelps was Executive Director of the Connecticut Siting Council, an executive branch agency in Connecticut State Government. The Siting Council’s charge, by statute, is to objectively balance the statewide public need for adequate and reliable services at the lowest reasonable cost to consumers with the need to protect the environment and ecology of the state. Electric generation and transmission, natural gas, and specific forms of telecommunications infrastructure including cellular telephone towers are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Siting Council.
In the nearly nine years that Mr. Phelps held this position he oversaw the siting processes that led to the approvals of over $4 billion in energy projects including 46 units of power generation totaling 1,184 megawatts and more than 100 miles of electric transmission line projects. During his tenure the agency also gave approval of more than 135 new-build cellular telephone towers across the state and a high-level radioactive waste storage facility at Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Waterford.
All told, the Siting Council rendered decisions in more than 200 contested-case proceedings and issued roughly 425 administrative declaratory rulings during the time he served as Executive Director. While serving in that position Mr. Phelps also attended to all the duties of a state agency chief administrative officer including inter-agency and inter-governmental relations, legislative liaison responsibilities, and all public communications.
Prior to his service at the Council, Mr. Phelps worked as program administrator of state and municipal buildings programs in the conservation and load management department of Northeast Utilities. He also served as Deputy Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans' Affairs and as a special-project manager for the Governor's Office, coordinating the Commissioning ceremonies for the Seawolf-class submarine USS Connecticut. In 1996 he was a delagate to the Republican National Convention representing the state's 2nd Congressional district. While a resident of Waterford he was elected to two terms on the Representative Town Meeting and one term on the Board of Selectmen, and was appointed to the Shellfish and Economic Development Commissions. He also served on the Board of Directors of the West Farms Land Trust.
Mr. Phelps earned a Bachelor's degree, with a focus in Public Administration, from the University of Connecticut. He also earned a Master of Science degree in E-Media Communications from Quinnipiac University. Mr. Phelps is a veteran of the U.S. Navy Submarine Service and of the U.S. Naval Reserve. He lives in the City of Middletown with his wife, Julie, and his nine-year old daughter, Haley.
Practice FocusEducation
- M.S., E-Media Communications, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Connecticut
- B.A., Public Administration, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
- Connecticut Power & Energy Society
- Northeast Energy & Commerce Association
- Connecticut Business and Industry Association
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Middlesex Chamber of Commerce
Member, Board of Directors -
Veterans of Foreign Wars Milardo-Wilcox American Legion Post 75, Middletown, Connecticut
Member -
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge No. 771, Middletown, Connecticut
Member -
The Hundred Club of Connecticut
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Middletown Republican Town Committee
