Munir Hassan is a partner in the Energy & Utilities team, and is Head of Clean Energy, at CMS Cameron McKenna in London, helping to determine the Firm’s strategy on renewables, carbon capture and emissions trading matters. He is a leading commentator in this area, with regular speaking engagements, media interviews and articles in the industry press.
Over the past ten years, Munir has advised on independent power projects, renewables and emissions trading, regulatory and commercial arrangements, M&A transactions, sector restructurings, fuel supply arrangements and PPAs, price regulated energy networks, regional trading arrangements and wholesale/retail supply issues and has drafted or advised on power sector legislation, contracts, licences and codes in a number of jurisdictions.
The following is a selected list of his projects:
Offshore wind
- Advising EDP Renováveis on The Moray Firth Round 3 offshore wind project and retained on a number of other onshore renewable transactions
- Advising Statoil on its Hywind floating offshore wind project
- Advising RWE on the sale of a stake in Gwynt y Mor offshore windfarm, including regulatory, structuring and commercial elements
- Advising a joint venture of two major developers on a large offshore wind development (Round 2.5), including on negotiation of documents with The Crown Estate and with prospective partners
- Advising on the acquisition of SeaEnergy Renewables and the related JV between EDP Renováveis and Repsol Nuevas Energias in relation to the Inch Cape Scottish Territorial Waters and the Moray Firth Round 3 projects
- Advising Statoil on regulatory and commercial matters for Sheringham Shoal
- Advising Statoil on Forewind and The Crown Estate’s documents for the Dogger Bank development for Round 3 offshore
- Advising BP Alternative Energy on its “Round 3” offshore tender to secure Renewable Energy Zones from The Crown Estate for the development of offshore windfarms, including on corporate structuring and financing issues
Onshore wind: Advising a number of investors over a number of years on separate corporate transactions to acquire portfolios of windfarm and renewables assets, including BP Alternative Energy and EDP Renovaveis and coordinating the CMS offering to Iberdrola Renovables on portfolio windfarm investments across Western, Central and South East Europe
Tidal wave: Retained by Statoil to advise on their Marine Renewables projects (including on commercial scale tidal and wave projects) in the UK and across Western Europe
Solar PV
- Advising a variety of players including Hanse Solar, HEP Kapital, Low Carbon Solar, Phoenix Solar, Q-Cells, Schott Solar, Solon and Vigor Renewables on proposed roll outs of pipelines of solar PV projects in the UK
- Advising on a project to procure a pipeline of solar PV projects in Gujarat, India
Carbon Capture & Storage
- Advising National Grid Carbon on its successful participation as transportation provider in the UK’s demonstration project to build a commercial scale CCS plant
- Advising National Grid Carbon on all aspects of its major CCS project in the Humber region, including on successfully securing EEPR funding
- Advising the Governments of the UK, Norway, Germany and The Netherlands (the North Sea Basin Task Force) on the “One North Sea” project to facilitate development of the North Sea for carbon capture and to achieve an outcome at Copenhagen that facilitates the exploitation of the North Sea for CCS
- Advising the Electric Power Research Institute of California on knowledge transfer activities as part of the UK’s CCS demonstration competition
Emissions trading: Advising a number of affected players on compliance with emissions requirements, negotiating emissions trading arrangements and advising on exemptions from EU ETS Phase III requirements, and also advising on green/brown LEC swaps
Nuclear Power
- Advising RWE npower on commercial and regulatory aspects of their nuclear new build project in the UK, including acquisition of sites at Wylfa and Oldbury from the NDA
- Advising Vattenfall on commercial and regulatory issues relating to its bid for British Energy
- Advising on the drafting of new legislation setting up a decommissioning fund for nuclear facilities and the management of radioactive waste as part of the privatisation of Slovenské Elektrárne, a.s. (completed in April 2006)
Energy from Waste
- Appointed by E.on Energy from Waste (EEW) in relation to their EfW projects in the UK
- Longstanding advisor to LondonWaste on commercial and regulatory matters
- Advice to WRG on landfill gas and waste to energy matters
Biofuels: Advising BioMCN on biomethanol arrangements in the UK
Power Purchase Agreements: Advising on numerous PPAs, including as part of privatisations, vesting contracts, tolling agreements and third party netting agreements with UK suppliers
IPP Procurement: Acting for the Republic of South Africa's Department of Treasury on wide scale reform to the energy regulatory framework with the aim of structuring the market to promote IPP investment in renewable energy projects.
Regional Electricity Trading
- Advising the European Commission and the Governments of seven countries in South East Europe on the legislative and legal frameworks of each individual national electricity sector for the implementation of a Regional Electricity Market
- Advising a major UK utility on commercial, regulatory and contractual issues relating to its participation in the French power exchange
Fuel Supply: Advising UK Coal on successfully concluding very high value long term contracts for a significant proportion of its output
Renewables commercial advice: Advising various energy companies on compliance issues in the renewable energy sector, such as compliance with the renewables certification schemes, cross-border transportation of levy exemption certificates, licensing/exemptions, consenting, EPC arrangements, real estate issues, green electricity, REGOs, wheeling of green electricity and exemptions from the EU ETS
Wholesale electricity market arrangements
- Advising on changes to the Renewable Output Factor arrangements for trading by renewables in Northern Ireland
- Advising the National Grid Company plc on new electricity trading arrangements (NETA) and, in particular, on the Balancing and Settlement Code, the British Grid Systems Agreement and the extension of the arrangements to Scotland (BETTA)
- Advising NIE plc on the All Island Market in Ireland and Northern Ireland involving the implementation of a single electricity market in the island of Ireland, including extensive dealings with government, the regulator and stakeholders
Retail electricity market arrangements: Advising NIE plc and NIE Supply on staged retail market opening through to implementation of full retail competition in Northern Ireland, including on drafting of the Market Registration Arrangements for all customers and on Common Services metering provision
Connections to the electricity grid
- Drafting the Connection and Use of System Code for E&W (now extended to GB) including all related agreements and documents (Construction Agreement, Interface Agreement, BEGA, BCA etc.)
- Drafting the network connection contractual and regulatory arrangements for Northern Ireland, including bespoke windfarm connection arrangements
- Drafting the network connection and use of system code and related contractual and regulatory arrangements for Turkey
- Drafting the network connection contractual and regulatory arrangements for Saudi Arabia
Electricity Networks
- Appointed as ‘Secretary to the Grid Code’ in Northern Ireland and, as a longstanding advisor to the System Operator of Northern Ireland (SONI), advising SONI on commercial and regulatory matters, including on windfarm issues
- Drafting and implementing a Grid Code in Italy to comply with the requirements of the EU Electricity Directive, and to accord with existing practice and national considerations (e.g. black outs)
- Advised Northern Ireland Electricity for many years on a wide variety of issues, including on price control renegotiations, including on successive commercial and regulatory developments impacting the transmission and distribution business
- Acting for The Kenya Power and Lighting Company on its wheeling arrangements relating to the transmission of power offtake from the Lake Turkana wind farm across a 428 km / 400kV transmission line
Implementation of European Law: Advising on the compliance of Romanian secondary legislation for the regulation of electricity and heat with the EU acquis communautaire
M&A - Electricity generation: Advising on the acquisition by AIG/Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan of the UK parts of Intergen's portfolio of 10 international power stations including advice on the electricity, gas, trading, competition, FSA and environmental legal and regulatory issues relating to the transaction and on the gas supply, power purchase and tolling agreements
M&A - Electricity networks: Advised an infrastructure fund on bidding for United Utilities Electricity, in particular on the complex regulatory issues in relation to structure of the operation of UUE
Establishment of Regulator in Saudi Arabia: Advising on the establishment of a new legal and regulatory framework within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Drafting the new Electricity Law and the secondary legislative framework, including licences. Continuing advice on the completion of the legal and regulatory framework for the electricity sector, and the establishment of a legal and regulatory framework for the desalination sector
Establishment of Regulator in Botswana: Advising on the establishment of a new cross-sectoral utility regulatory for Botswana including on the drafting of an Electricity and Water Law to establish the legal and regulatory framework and institutional arrangements for the regulatory body
Electricity Retail: Longstanding advisor to NIE Supply advising on commercial and regulatory matters, including on the introduction of new wholesale arrangements, introduction of full retail competition, commercial contracts, hedging contracts, price controls, and successive commercial and regulatory developments in the NI electricity industry
Monoline wrapping: Advising XL Capital on energy regulatory issues impacting on financing as part of the successful monoline wrapping of a bond issue in relation to a gas transporter
Water Sector Advice
- Advising a potential bidder for Thames Water on the legal and regulatory framework in the UK water sector, including on innovative multi-utility O&M arrangements and structuring the transaction to align with the bidder’s strategy
- Advising a major UK water utility on regulatory and legislative arrangements for the introduction of retail competition into the water sector
Rail Sector Advice: Following the appointment of a special administrator to Railtrack, part of a cross-disciplinary team advising on options for future regulation of the rail sector and the implications of the 2001 package of Rail Directives. Previously advised on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link
Airports Sector Advice: Advising Babcock & Brown on regulatory issues and strategy relating to its proposed bid for Gatwick Airport