Josh Adrian

As counsel to a variety of electric industry participants, Josh helps clients navigate state and federal regulatory processes and resolve complex transactional and ratemaking issues before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and appellate courts.

For clients operating hydropower facilities, Josh provides in-depth guidance on the FERC licensing and relicensing processes under the Federal Power Act (FPA), and the corresponding review processes of various state and federal resource agencies. Clients turn to Josh for assistance in license compliance issues as well. Josh's work in this area extends to the environmental impact of hydropower projects, including under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.

Josh also provides strategic counsel in the acquisition and sale of generation resources, and performs evaluations and due diligence reviews of power plants. In this role, he provides advice in obtaining the regulatory approvals required to complete such transactions, including obtaining market-based rate authorization of FERC and fulfilling attendant regulatory requirements.

Josh has represented electric ratepayer clients facing considerable rate increases in FERC proceedings, and achieved significant savings for clients. In particular, he has represented ratepayers that encounter pressure from public utilities to take service under a formula, rather than stated, rate. Josh has also represented the interests of ratepayers in opposing public utility requests for incentive rate treatment under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

With respect to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's (NERC) reliability regime, Josh helps clients establish compliance programs designed to meet the requirements of NERC's mandatory and effective Reliability Standards. He has also assisted clients in various stages of the compliance monitoring and enforcement processes of NERC's Regional Entities.

In the policy arena, Josh has counseled municipal utilities and electric cooperatives throughout the nation on questions of market design, as they operate as participants within the markets administered by Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs). He has advised municipal utilities during the transition of the California energy markets to a new tariff under the California ISO electric cooperative, the transition to a central Ancillary Services Market within the Midcontinent ISO, and in PJM's reforms of its capacity market.