Insights

Washington, June 27, 2019: Crowell & Moring represented Clearway Energy, Inc. (CWEN), a publicly-traded energy infrastructure investor, in the repowering of two existing wind assets in Texas with an aggregate capacity of 283 MW, held in a partnership with CWEN’s affiliate Clearway Energy Group.

Washington – February 7, 2018: Crowell & Moring LLP represented NRG Yield, Inc. in negotiating agreements to acquire the Carlsbad Energy Center, a 519 megawatt gas-fired generating facility under construction in California, for $365 million in cash plus assumed debt of $601 million, and the Buckthorn Solar Generating Facility, a 154 megawatt facility under construction in Texas, for $42.3 million in cash plus assumed debt of $131 million.

Washington – November 17, 2017: Crowell & Moring LLP represented NRG Yield, Inc. in acquiring a 38 megawatt portfolio of solar facilities from NRG Energy, including NRG’s Solar Power Partners funds, for a total  consideration of $71 million in cash plus assumed debt of $26 million. The transaction closed on November 1, 2017. The Crowell & Moring team included partner Patrick W. Lynch, counsel Nicholas James, partner Scott J. Moore, partner David Chung, partner Jennifer A. Ray, senior counsel Deborah A. Carpentier, counsel Diana A. Jeschke, associate Tyler A. O’Connor, associate Kevin Silk, and associate Mark Thomson.

This has not been a joyful winter for energy industry executives. They have repeatedly awoken to alerts that substations in the Northwest and Southeast have been physically attacked and that a major engineering firm was the subject of a ransomware cyberattack that may have compromised utility data.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has filed a petition requesting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve its proposed reliability standard EOP-012-1, which would add to reliability standard obligations of NERC-registered Generator Owners with respect to extreme cold weather preparedness, including freeze protection measures for both new and existing generating units, enhanced cold weather preparedness plans, and annual training. A bullet summary of key aspects of the proposal is below. Comments on this proposal must be filed with FERC no later than December 1, 2022.

As the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) considers changes to Order No. 860 requirements, it has now delayed the order’s effectiveness for three months to July 1, 2021, and in so doing, it has clarified its definition of “Affiliate” for market-based rate (MBR) purposes. 

Please join members of Crowell & Moring’s Energy Group for a webinar as they discuss FERC’s new requirement for baseline submissions under FERC Order No. 860.