Hydropower Licensing and Regulation
Troutman Sanders has had an active hydropower practice before the U.S. Federal Power Commission and FERC for over 50 years. The firm represents developers, licensees and governments on every aspect of hydroelectric regulation and licensing. At any given time, the firm is assisting several clients with the complex process of relicensing, from initial scoping to preparing license applications and negotiating with federal, tribal, and state resource agencies, as well as other stakeholders. Our attorneys have also helped clients build, license, manage, and decommission projects.
Our Team
Today, the firm provides an unrivaled concentration of experience in the federal regulation of hydropower projects. The Troutman Sanders Hydropower practice is an integral part of the firm’s Energy practice and Environmental and Natural Resources practice. More than 100 lawyers are involved in the two practice groups, including recognized experts in all aspects of the electric power industry and in the hydropower related areas of Clean Water Act regulation, Corps of Engineers regulation, endangered species, coastal zone management programs, historic preservation law, NEPA, public lands management, and water resource development. The Troutman Sanders Hydropower Team also includes water quality and water supply experts.
Our Work
The Troutman Sanders Hydropower Team is particularly qualified to assist clients in the increasingly important post-licensing matters of implementation and compliance. Licenses today are issued with significant new requirements involving environmental protection, and often incorporate adaptive management principles. Licensees will be increasingly engaged in post-license proceedings involving critical cost issues such as minimum flows and fish protection. The Troutman Sanders Hydropower Team has successfully assisted clients through these proceedings, which have unique procedural and legal requirements.
A sample of the Hydropower Team’s engagements includes the following. We have:
- Represented numerous private and municipal applicants in original, amendment, and relicensing proceedings resulting in favorable license terms with very little loss of generation.
- Represented the first utility to use FERC’s Integrated Licensing Process, including participation in the first formal study plan dispute resolution process.
- Represented a large utility in successful completion of the first relicensing under FERC’s Alternative Licensing Process.
- Represented licensees in negotiating complex settlements both pre and post filing of new license applications with FERC.
- Represented licensees before FERC and federal and state courts in successful resolution of complaint and compliance proceedings involving such matters as lake levels, minimum flows, shoreline management plans, fish kills, and water withdrawal compensation.
- Drafted legislation for both project-specific and programmatic purposes and successfully advocated the bills’ enactment into law.
- Negotiated the first Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances for a hydropower licensee (an innovative application of endangered species law).
- Represented a developer regarding the application of NEPA, the ESA and the Federal Power Act in obtaining FERC approval to increase water withdrawals from a project reservoir in order to meet the water needs of a housing development.