Canada's extremely diverse and largely provincially segmented electricity market is undergoing significant change. A complex set of variables ranging from GHG emission reduction regulation, transmission and distribution constraints, resource availability, costs and technological advances are shaping our current and future generation, transmission and distribution needs. Government projections over the coming years make it clear that substantial investment in these sectors will be essential, creating new opportunities for Canadian and international power and transmission developers, related industries and their customers.

Bennett Jones is a leader in these areas, regularly providing advice on generation, transmission and distribution projects in Canada and internationally. Our global clients include power and transmission developers, facility owners, electric cooperatives, fuel suppliers, off-takers and steam/heat site hosts, as well as local, provincial and national regulatory boards and domestic and foreign agencies.

Our expertise includes assisting in project structuring, tax planning, regulatory compliance, EPC and EPC management contracts, project and conventional debt and equity financing, and site lease and acquisition. We have significant experience in acquisitions and divestitures in the electricity industry. We regularly negotiate a wide range of supply and sales contracts, including electricity trading and marketing agreements, off-take, power purchase and tolling agreements as well as other physical and financial contracts, operating agreements, interconnection arrangements with transmission and distribution grids, fuel supply and related arrangements, and steam and heat sales agreements.

We also possess substantial electricity sector restructuring experience, having drafted market rules and market-related contracts for wholesale electricity markets in Ontario and New Brunswick and having acted as counsel to several market participants within the deregulated electricity markets, representing bidders in virtually all energy and ancillary services MAP auctions that have been conducted by the Alberta Balancing Pool since 2000.

Our clients in the independent power business have participated in hundreds of power generation projects in Canada and abroad, which have involved facilities ranging in size from less than one MW to more than 1,000 MW, fuelled by sources as diverse as nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydro, biogas, biomass, solar and wind.