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. He is also co-head of the CMS Energy Sector Group, and co-ordinates strategy, initiatives and integrated working across our energy sector experts across Western and Eastern Europe.
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 – a fuller list can be provided on request:
- Offshore wind: Advising Statoil on regulatory and commercial arrangements for Sheringham Shoal. Advising Statoil on Forewind documents for Round 3 offshore. Advising on further major offshore wind developments, including on negotiation of documents with The Crown Estate and partners
- Offshore wind: Advising a major Round 2 developer on the sale of a stake in its offshore windfarm, including corporate, regulatory, structuring and commercial elements
- Offshore wind: Advising a bidder on its “Round 3” offshore tender to secure Renewable Energy Zones from The Crown Estate for the development of offshore windfarms, including on corporate and financing issues
- Offshore wind networks: Part of the team advising National Grid on the Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) Arrangements for connection of offshore windfarms
- 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
- Onshore wind: Advising Neo Energia, ProCME and Siemens on the commercial aspects of their bid to develop the 300MW Tarfaya windfarm on the Atlantic coast of Morocco
- Marine Renewables: Retained by Statoil to advise on their Marine Renewables projects (including tidal and wave projects) in the UK and across Western Europe
- Carbon Capture: Advising National Grid Carbon on its participation as transportation provider in the UK’s demonstration project to build a commercial scale CCS plant. Also advising National Grid Carbon on other CCS projects in the Humber and Thames regions
- Carbon Capture: 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
- Carbon Capture: Advising the Electric Power Research Institute of California on knowledge transfer activities in relation to the UK’s CCS demonstration competition
- Emissions trading: Advising a number of affected players on compliance with emissions requirements and negotiating emissions trading arrangements
- Nuclear: 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
- Nuclear: Advising Vattenfall on commercial and regulatory issues relating to its bid for British Energy
- Nuclear: 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)
- Electricity and renewables projects in South East Europe: Advising the European Commission and the governments of seven jurisdictions in SEE on the legislative and legal frameworks of each individual national electricity sector for the implementation of a Regional Electricity Market
- Implementation of European Law in CEE: Drafting a Report on the compliance of Romanian secondary legislation for the regulation of electricity and heat with the EU acquis communautaire
- 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
- Renewables market arrangements: Advising on the Renewable Output Factor arrangements for trading by renewables in Northern Ireland. Also, 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
- Connections of renewables to the grid: Developing the network connection contractual and regulatory arrangements in four jurisdictions (GB, NI, Saudi Arabia, Turkey) including bespoke windfarm connection arrangements, and advising the National Grid Company plc on the codification of all existing contractual documentation relating to connection to and use of its system into a single code
- Technical rules for windfarms: Advising the System Operator of Northern Ireland on the NI Grid Code, the technical rules for the network (including being appointed to support the Grid Code Review Panel), and advising on amendments to reflect the operation of windfarms
- Electricity restructuring: Advising NIE plc on the All Island Market in Ireland and Northern Ireland involving staged market opening up to full retail competition in Northern Ireland, together with the implementation of a single electricity market in the island of Ireland, including extensive dealings with government, the regulator and stakeholders. Advising NIE plc on day to day commercial and regulatory issues and arrangements
- Electricity generation M&A: 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
- Electricity networks M&A: 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
- Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Legal and Regulatory Framework: 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
- Italian Grid Code: Drafting and implementing a Grid Code to comply with the requirements of the EU Electricity Directive, and to accord with existing practice and national considerations (eg black outs)
- Water Sector Acquisition: A potential bidder on the legal and regulatory framework in the UK water sector, including on innovative proposed O&M arrangements and structuring the transaction to align with the bidder’s strategy
- Water Sector Regulation: A UK water utility on regulatory and legislative arrangements for the introduction of retail competition into the water sector
- Railtrack: 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
- Airports Regulation: Babcock & Brown on regulatory issues relating to its proposed bid for Gatwick Airport
- NI Grid Code: Secretary to the NI Grid Code and advising the System Operator of Northern Ireland (SONI) on commercial and regulatory matters
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