Our track record in advising on the energy transition, regulatory reform, market design and major energy infrastructure projects in Ireland and Northern Ireland is without peer. We have extensive experience acting for government, regulators, financiers, market participants and customers in Ireland, Northern Ireland and internationally. This gives us a unique perspective on the commercial and policy imperatives of different stakeholders in the sector and significantly enhances our ability to add value for our clients.

We have an unrivalled depth of expertise in the energy and resources sectors in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, offering specialist advice across the full spectrum of relevant disciplines, including:

• Energy regulation under domestic and EU law
• Development of conventional and renewable power projects, including onshore and offshore wind, solar, CHP, biomass, hydro-electricity, gas and waste to energy
• Storage, demand response and system services
• Electricity and gas transmission, distribution and interconnection
• Gas connection, shipping and storage
• Regulatory reform and energy market design
• Physically and financially settled gas and electricity trading arrangements
• Emissions trading and Renewables Obligation Certificate trading
• Electricity and gas retail supply contracts
• Electricity connection and use of system arrangements
• Mineral and gas exploration and production
• Environment and planning
• Project finance
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Dispute resolution

Relevant Experience

We have an unrivalled depth of expertise in the energy and resources sectors in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, offering specialist advice across the full spectrum of relevant disciplines, including:

• Renewable Energy including advising sponsors, lenders and offtakers on more than 120 onshore wind projects, including advising on the development and financing of the 172MW Oweninny Windfarm, Ireland’s largest windfarm; advising on the acquisition and development of the proposed 450MW Sceirdre Rocks offshore windfarm; advising on the development and financing of multiple solar farms including the 282MW Rosspile and Gillinstown Solar Portfolio, the largest solar portfolio financed in Ireland; and advising on the development and financing of the 72MW Dublin Waste to Energy Project, Ireland’s largest energy recovery project.
• Conventional Power including advising the sponsors on the development of 50MW of emergency gas fired generation; the 352MW CCGT Huntstown I Power Project; the 412MW CCGT Huntstown II Power Project; the 445MW CCGT Whitegate Power Project; the 431MW CCG Great Island Power Project; and multiple small scale CHP projects.
• Energy Storage including advising the lenders on the financing of the 2x100MW Lumcloon and Shannonbridge Battery Energy Storage Systems; AES on the installation of a 10MW battery energy storage system in Northern Ireland; and Corre Energy on the 300MW Zuidwending Compressed Air Energy Storage Project in the Netherlands.
• Interconnectors including advising the sponsors on the 500MW HVDC Moyle Interconnector; the 500MW HVDC East West Interconnector; the 500MW HVDC Greenlink Interconnector and the proposed 750MW HVDC MARESConnect Interconnector, as well as EIB on the financing of 700MW HVDC Celtic Interconnector.
• Energy Efficiency & Demand Side Response including energy efficiency obligations, energy efficiency contracts and energy services concessions for public buildings; demand response; aggregation; and DS3 services and smart metering, including regulatory and data protection considerations.
• Electric Vehicles including advising on charging infrastructure and regulation of charging services.
• Upstream and Downstream Gas including advising the Irish State on the development of the Petroleum Safety Framework and all offshore consents for the Corrib Gas Field, the implementation of Entry/Exit and development of the Code of Operations in Ireland.
• Energy Trading including physically and financially settled gas, electricity and carbon trading contracts, including corporate power purchase agreements for generators and offtakers and power purchase agreements under various renewable support regimes; and retail gas and electricity supply.
• Energy Market Reform including advising on the implementation of I-SEM (Ireland and NI); SEM (Ireland and NI); MAE (Ireland); BETTA (UK) and gas entry/exit (Ireland and NI).
• Mergers & Acquisitions advising on most of the largest energy sector acquisitions on the island of Ireland including the €571million acquisition of Brookfield by Orsted; the acquisition of the Sceirdre Rocks Offshore Windfarm by Green Investment Group; the €1billion sale of Viridian Group to I-Squared; the €1.1billion acquisition of Bord Gais Energy by Centrica; the €1.2billion sale of NIE to ESB; the €1.1billion sale of Airtricity Holdings to SSE; the £1.62billion acquisition of Viridian Group by Arcapita; and the €450 million disposal by ESB of 1,300MW of generation assets to Endesa A/S.
• Energy Financing including advising on over €5billion of project, corporate and acquisition finance facilities in the onshore wind, biomass, waste-to-energy, hydro, landfill gas, coal, CCGT, mining and natural gas sectors.
• Disputes including advising Energia Group on the first ever successful judicial review of the CRU in connection with bidding controls in the SEM; CRU on the successful defence of landmark judicial review proceedings in connection with tariffing under the Gas Directive; Energia Group on the first ever (successful) Statutory Appeal under the Electricity Regulation Act; the Irish State on the successful defence of multiple judicial reviews connected to the Corrib Gas Field; and multiple disputes before the CRU under domestic and EU law and multiple commercial disputes.