Marcus Wood

Experience

Marcus Wood is a partner in the Energy Development practice group. He focuses his practice on energy provider and energy facility developer clients. Marcus has extensive experience representing independent power company owners of conventional and renewable energy projects, as well as regulated electric, natural gas and water utilities. He practices before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and before utility regulatory bodies in the states of Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Wyoming, in investigations and in rate proceedings, and has been a leader in efforts to create Regional Transmission Organizations.

Marcus has represented numerous parties in the acquisition and financing of interests in, and in the disposition of, the output from cogeneration and other conventional electric generation facilities, as well as wind-powered and geothermal energy resources. He regularly assists clients on the structuring of energy projects and the operating contracts, power sales contracts and transmission contracts required for such projects. He also has extensive experience advising sellers, purchasers and exchangers of electric capacity and energy, as well as advising both transmission service providers and purchasers of electric transmission and related services.

Representative Work

• Led the Attorney's Committee in efforts to form the "IndeGo" and the "RTO West" Regional Transmission Organizations for the Northwestern United States.
• Represented a major independent power producer in negotiating and financing the acquisition of a 300 megawatt wind farm in Colorado.
• Represented a major investor-owned utility in re-negotiating a steam supply agreement, a series of steam prepayment agreements, production payment agreements, trust deeds and other documents related to securing the steam supply required to operate a geothermal steam plant located in Utah.
• Represented a major investor-owned utility in negotiating a development agreement for the acquisition of a 41 megawatt wind farm in Wyoming, and in creating a generation control, storage and redelivery agreement for the transmission of the wind farm's output over constrained transmission facilities for firm delivery in Oregon.
• Represented a developer in negotiation of power purchase agreements for output of a geothermal steam plant located in Idaho and in negotiation of a power storage and redelivery agreement for project output to be stored and later redelivered to a purchaser located in Oregon.
• Represented a major wind project developer in negotiating multiple renewable energy purchase agreements for 400 megawatts of output from a wind farm in Indiana.
• Represented a major wind project developer in negotiating the acquisition of a 24 megawatt wind farm in Oregon.
• Represented a major wind project developer in negotiating a wind development acquisition and sale agreement for the development and sale of a 123 megawatt wind farm in Iowa.
• Represented a major developer in negotiating a long-term power tolling agreement for a new 550 megawatt gas-fired electric generation facility to be constructed by the developer.

Professional Honors & Activities

• Selected by Best Lawyers as Energy Law Lawyer of the Year, Portland, 2012
• Listed in Best Lawyers in America® (currently: Energy Law), 2013

Presentations

• "Tackling Energy Storage Issues," EUCI Webinar, September 21, 2011
• "Regional Planning – Implications for Transmission Siting and Investment in the West," Transmission West 2011, San Francisco, California, Sep. 19, 2011
• "Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES): Lessons Learned from Natural Gas Tolling," (panelist), EUCI Webinar, July 21, 2011
• "Transmission Outlook," (moderator), Projects & Money 2011, New Orleans, Louisiana, Jan. 12, 2011
• "Biomass to Energy Projects: Key Issues to Consider in Power Purchase and Feedstock Agreements," The Seminar Group, Sep. 15, 2010
• "Energy Storage for Intermittent Generation," Tie Clean Energy Special Interest Group, Apr. 21, 2010
• "Impact of State RPS's and the Prospect of a Federal RPS," (panelist), Infocast Webinar, Jan. 27, 2010
• "Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreements: A 15-Minute Sampling of Particular Areas of Concern to Sellers," The Center for American and International Law Second Annual Power & Alternative Energy Law Conference, Houston, Texas, Apr. 22, 2009
• "Global Warming Initiatives in the Western States: Impacts on the Location and Marketing of Electric Generation," Infocast Webinar, Oct. 4, 2007
• "Transmission Policy, Incentives, and Expansion in the Western United States," Electric Utility Consultants, Inc. Conference on Transmission Expansion in the Western United States, Westminster, Colorado, May 21, 2007
• "Transmission Service Through Generation Redispatch: The Multiple Flavors of Redispatch," Utility Wind Integration Group Wind-Hydro Integration Conference, Portland, Oregon, May 22, 2007
• "California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: The Impacts on Ownership, Construction, and Marketing of Power from Electric Generation Facilities," Infocast Webinar, Sep. 21, 2006
• "The Pacific Northwest – A Laboratory for Delivery of Grid Access and Transmission Services," American Wind Energy Association Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado, May 17, 2005

Publications

• "Section 3 – Transmission and Interconnection" (co-author), Case Study: A Wind Development Project in the State of California, Stoel Rives LLP, June 2011 (PDF- available in English and Chinese)
• "Regulatory and Transmission-Related Issues," (co-author), The Law of Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy: A Guide to Business and Legal Issues, Stoel Rives LLP, Vol. 4, 2011 (formerly The Law of Ocean and Tidal Energy)
• "Relocating the Wind: New Strategies for Moving Wind Generation from High-Wind Areas to High-Load Areas," North American Clean Energy, Aug. 4, 2008

Education

• Yale University Law School, J.D., 1974
• Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1969, cum laude
  Phi Beta Kappa

Admissions

• Oregon
• U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth and Districut of Columbia Circuits

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