Wind Project Repowering and Retrofit Due Diligence Summit

March 28-29, 2023 | Online :: Central Time

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“Great meeting. As an engineer focused on technical aspects of due diligence, the conference was a learning opportunity for other topics such as tax/financial issues.” – Senior Energy Consultant, Sargent & Lundy

“Great program!” – Executive Director, E3 Consulting

“A well thought out program that covered the major factors.” – Director of Preconstruction, Rosendin Electric

“Great sessions, great speakers, looking forward for the next one” – Senior Principal, Terracon

“Excellent program overall” – Environmental Review Manager, Minnesota Department of Commerce

Repowering wind facilities is an increasingly attractive option for developers, owners, and investors to leverage a combination of recent tax credit enhancements and technological advancements.  Such investments, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), could soar to $25 billion a year by 2030.

This course will examine:

• The wind repower development market
• Features of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that favor repowering
• Holistic coverage of the financial, technical, and legal due diligence items evaluating what constitutes a bankable repower project
• Comparisons with greenfield projects, relating to…
  • Avoided work and costs
  • Reduced O&M
  • Improved capacity and revenues

Register now to take away valuable wind industry expert insights regarding due diligence best practices – whether considering a wind project repowering development or conducting M&A review to acquire wind assets with that opportunity.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify key trends in U.S. wind repower market and the role of the reinvigorated repowering movement
• Evaluate how repowering can increase the overall profitability of a wind project
• Assess key technical, financial, and legal due diligence items related to wind project repowering
• Assess tax issues and qualification for wind repower projects for PTC and ITC
• Review IRS guidelines for repower projects and qualification for project development timelines
• Assess key legal considerations, construction contract provisions, and insurance issues for wind repowers
• Review wind repower economics and what constitutes a bankable repower project
• Assess the interconnection process for repowering wind farms
• Analyze technical due diligence for wind energy assessment for repowering valuation
• Identify methodology for conducting a comprehensive independent engineering (IE) review for wind repower projects
• Review the important role of analyzing wind turbine foundations in a repower project
• Evaluate the direct experience of OEMs constructing and installing repower projects

Tuesday, March 28, 2023 : Central Time

 

9:00 – 9:20 a.m. :: Overview & Introductions

9:20 –10:30 a.m. :: Wind Repower Market Landscape & Due Diligence Overview/Bankable Project Opportunities

This opening discussion will examine the landscape for wind repowering projects, reinvigorated by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. What are the key issues and questions in performing repowering and retrofit project due diligence? Topics will include the critical role of wind in the transition to renewables, types of repowering projects (full vs. partial), the cost-saving advantages of repowering existing structures relative to new developments, and the considerations involved in analyzing the logistics as well as the appropriateness of repowering projects.

Jim Duffy, Partner & Chair – Renewable Energy Tax Credit Team, Nixon Peabody, LLP

Fernando Sosa, Director – Valuation & Advisory, Cushman & Wakefield

Jack Weisz, Director – Repower and Long-Term Service Agreement Sales North America, General Electric (GE) Renewable Energy

Jarek Stopczyk, Business Strategy Senior Manager – NA Utilities, Accenture

Trudy Forsyth, Vice Chair DWEA and Distributed Wind Opportunities Lead, NREL (ret’d)

Gary Durden, Managing Director, CohnReznick Capital

10:30 – 10:45 a.m. :: Morning Break

10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. :: Tax Issues & Qualification for Wind Repower Projects

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act extends and modifies the federal tax credits for wind energy projects. What are the new tax issues and qualification rules governing wind repower projects? This presentation will delve into IRS guidelines for combining old and new assets as well as prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements in the new legislation. Topics will include how to qualify for project development timelines and depreciation for project development times, new details governing the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC), and how to ensure repower project qualify for development deadlines.

Jim Duffy, Partner & Chair – Renewable Energy Tax Credit Team, Nixon Peabody, LLP

Fernando Sosa, Director – Valuation & Advisory, Cushman & Wakefield

12:00 – 12:45 p.m. :: Lunch Break

12:45 – 1:45 p.m. :: Financial Modeling and Appraisals for Wind Repowering Analysis

Financial due diligence for potential wind repower and retrofit projects includes understanding factors related to grid interconnection, balance-of-plant, tax credit qualification, pre-installation of balance-of-plant, and transmission rights and PPAs. This session will examine what investors are seeking in a repower project, including an assessment of infrastructure, the ability to capitalize on good existing wind sites, and the potential for acquiring old facilities at a discount for the purpose of repowering.

Fernando Sosa, Director – Valuation & Advisory, Cushman & Wakefield

1:45 – 2:45 p.m. :: Legal Issues with Wind Re-power and M&A Projects

• Key legal considerations for wind re-powering
  • Larger or taller equipment issues
  • Wind resource
  • Contract restrictions
  • Community response
  • Land use, environmental and permitting requirements
• Full vs. Partial Repowering
• Legal contract structuring for re-powering agreements
  • Project agreements review (O&M, PPA, Interconnection)
  • Partial Repowering special issues
  • Ensuring that key provisions of development contracts work together
• M&A transactions and considerations

Rochelle Rabeler, Partner, Holland & Hart LLP

2:45 – 3:00 p.m. :: Afternoon Break

 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. :: Environmental, Land Use and Permitting Considerations

This presentation will examine the permitting and design challenges associated with replacing and upgrading turbines, including determining if a re-power project requires state regulatory commission approval, consideration of state goals/mandates for renewables and emissions, types of permits required for repower projects, timelines for obtaining approvals, and considerations related to zoning and entitlement permitting at the state and local level. NEPA and CEQA requirements will also be examined, as will the need to address community issue, wildlife studies and federal and local government agency interactions, water and wetlands concerns, Tribal consultation and cultural resource considerations, as well as special issues that may arise in preparing for repowering and retrofit projects.

Eric Hansen, Director – Environmental Services, Westwood Professional Services

 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. :: State Regulator Approaches to Wind Repower Projects

Building a successful developer/regulator relationship can be key for project approval. Due to variations in state regulations and rules, it is important to identify and establish contacts with all appropriate agencies in a given state of operation in order to be aware of issues and area of concern for regulatory approval of repower projects, which can include, among other things, noise modeling, property owner participation, as well as wildlife and permitting. This presentation will provide the regulator perspective on the necessary due diligence for developer in preparing for regulator review of repower projects, and what needs to be brought to the table, including GIS/maps, surveys, processes and timelines, and input from developer partners such as biologists and lawyers.

Richard Davis, Environmental Review Manager, Minnesota Department of Commerce

5:00 p.m. :: Course Adjourns for Day

 

Wednesday, March 29, 2023 : Central Time

 

9:00 – 10:00 a.m. :: Energy Assessment & Independent Engineering (IE) Review for Wind Projects

This session will discuss key technical and engineering considerations for wind repowering farms, evaluating how to determine if turbines on a wind farm will work and are certified to work.  It will review seven key areas that owners, investors, lenders, and engineers should analyze to maintain ongoing operations and plan for successful repowering:

• Wind turbine foundations
• Interconnection Agreement (IA)
• Electrical balance-of-plant
  • Reactive compensation
  • Projected expected life
  • Ampacity overload analysis
  • Harmonics/sub synchronous resonance (SSR)
• Wind turbine towers
  • Mechanical loads analysis
  • Protective coating maintenance
  • Anchor bolt maintenance
• Wind resource assessment
• Wind turbine technology and site suitability review
• Commercial and permitting review
• Operations and Maintenance (O&M) cost assessment
• Bankability
• Foundation considerations

10:00 – 10:15 a.m. :: Morning Break

10:15 – 11:15 a.m. :: Wind Turbine Foundations Analysis – Deep Dive

The integrity and capacity of the existing foundations are the most critical considerations for the long-term success of a repowering effort.  Specifically, owners and tax-equity investors have demanded a thorough, detailed, and comprehensive review of existing foundations, including strength, serviceability, and fatigue analysis.  This session will discuss key discoveries and outcomes from extensive modeling research conducted on a variety of wind turbine foundation designs, and key methodology steps needed to assess the risk of foundation failure:

• Determining the risk of wind turbine foundation failure
• Reviewing original foundation design
• Analyzing design consideration for fatigue loading
• Assessing condition of exposed (above ground) portion of foundations
• Below-ground foundation inspection
• Cracked vs. uncracked properties
• Skewed wind load test
• Site specific design loads
• Exposed foundation inspection findings
• Project’s quality assurance and quality control (QAQC) documentation to assess quality of workmanship and adherence to wind turbine and foundation design specifications from initial construction

Amr Sallam, Managing Director – Geotechnical Services and Vice President, NV5

11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. :: The OEM Perspective on Wind Repower Projects

This session will examine the lessons drawn from construction and installation experiences for repower projects and the methodologies applied for engineering solutions for repower projects that might involve parts replacements and equipment sizing. These include the importance of analysis of long-term integrity of existing towers and foundations as well as a thorough study of anticipated changes in force and load. Risk management involving warranties, third-party certification, and back-end services will also be discussed.

Matt Salmi, Senior Product Manager, General Electric (GE) Renewable Energy

12:15 – 1:00 p.m. :: Lunch Break

1:00 – 2:00 p.m. :: Understanding Land Rights and Title Insurance in the Repower Universe

From a certain perspective, an energy repower project is a sophisticated commercial real estate transaction; one that involves a lot of money and a lot of attorneys representing the various stakeholders. We’ll learn about the customized title insurance products used to insure energy facilities, the expanded scope of work associated with the land rights research, how the nature of the repower improvements can modify the insurance underwriting requirements, what you can expect in terms of timing and diligence support, and the issues you are likely to confront (or not confront) when repowering an existing energy facility.

John Agle, Counsel, Energy Specialist, Stewart Title Guaranty

Dawn Anderson, Vice President and Senior Underwriting Counsel, Stewart Title Guaranty

2:00 – 3:00 p.m. :: Risk Assessment, Risk Allocation, and Insurance

• Industry loss experience data
• Natural hazards
• Contingent exposures
• Insurance market – availability of bond and insurance coverage

Gary Fleming, Renewable Power Risk Engineering Practice Leader, PERse

3:00 – 3:15 p.m. :: Afternoon Break

3:15 – 4:30 p.m. :: Panel Discussion: Wind Project M&A and Repowering in the Wake of 2022 Federal Legislation and Policy Actions

• Inflation Reduction Act
• Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act
• Supply Chain Bottlenecks
• Tariffs
• Transmission initiatives
• Other policy conditions

Jim Duffy, Partner, Nixon Peabody, LLP

Fernando Sosa, Director – Valuation & Advisory, Cushman & Wakefield

Jack Weisz, Director – Re-power and Long-Term Service Agreement Sales North America, General Electric (GE) Renewable Energy

Jarek Stopczyk, Business Strategy Senior Manager – NA Utilities

4:30 – 5:15 p.m. :: Developer Perspective: Analyzing Project Potential & Interconnection Aspects of Re-power Projects

• Evaluating the developer’s changing role in the re-power
• Key construction and engineering aspects of wind project re-powering
• Analyzing if a wind asset is bankable for a re-power and resale
• Maximizing value of wind generation capacity with existing ground assets
• Interconnection process for re-powering wind
  • How it varies from a typical interconnection process
  • What ISOs and RTOs are doing for re-power interconnection

Ravi Bantu, Director – Transmission, Americas, RES Americas

5:15 p.m. :: Symposium Adjourns

John Agle is an Energy Specialist Counsel at Stewart Title Guaranty.  He is a nationally recognized expert on land rights and title insurance in the complex energy sector operating on a continental platform, having insured projects in nearly every U.S. State, plus Mexico and Canada.  Mr. Agle has enjoyed a career spanning more than four decades in the title insurance industry and has been insuring energy developments since 1995.  His experience extends to solar, wind, storage, geothermal, hydro, natural gas, and biomass/biofuel projects.

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Dawn Anderson is Vice President and Senior Underwriting Counsel for Stewart Title Guaranty Company and specializes in Renewable Energy transactions. She is involved in developing client relationships as well as underwriting high liability title insurance transactions throughout the United States.  During her tenure with Stewart, Ms. Anderson has worked as Underwriting Counsel and has managed the Direct Commercial Operations in Minnesota. Prior to joining Stewart in July 2012, she worked as an underwriting attorney for a few other regional and national underwriters, gaining an extensive background in title and escrow with residential and commercial operations.  Ms. Anderson received a B.A. in Psychology and Criminology from the University of Minnesota, Duluth and her Juris Doctorate degree from Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

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Richard Davis is Environmental Review Manager at the Minnesota Department of Commerce Energy Environmental Review and Analysis (EERA) unit.  He has more than 14 years of experience in natural resources management.  In his current role, Mr. Davis assists project developers to work through the State of Minnesota wind siting permit process, permittee compliance issues, coordination with MN DNR staff, and the development of wind facility related guidance documents.  He also provides assistance and guidance to the other Environmental Review Managers in the EERA unit as they work with the various aspects of the wind site permitting process, permit compliance, and repowering projects.  He began his career as a Natural Resources Biologist with I&S Group, a private consulting firm based in Minnesota, where he helped to build the Natural Resources Management unit and provided expertise in wetland delineations, state and federal wetland permitting, wetland restoration and creation plan design and management, vegetation surveys, tree inventories, and tree preservation planning.  He moved on to take a position as a Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the United State Fish and Wildlife Service, where he took on the role of being the Service’s primary biologist to review wind energy facilities being proposed in Minnesota.  Mr. Davis holds a Bachelor’s of Science and Master’s of Science in Biology.

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James F. Duffy is a partner in the Boston office of the national law firm, Nixon Peabody LLP.  He serves as the Chair of the firm’s Renewable Energy Tax Credit Team and concentrates his practice on structuring and closing transactions involving federal income tax credits and other significant federal and state income tax incentives, including Production Tax Credits and Investment Tax Credits for renewable energy.  His practice also covers New Markets Tax Credits.  He has represented numerous developers, investors, syndicators and lenders in structuring and closing renewable energy and other transactions.  He serves on the Board of Directors and is the Secretary of the Distributed Wind Energy Association (DWEA), as well as the Board of Directors of Windustry.  He is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island, B.A. and The Harvard Law School, J.D.

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Eric Hansen is Director Environmental Services and Senior Project Manager at Westwood Professional Services, where he leads environmental services as well as manages environmental projects and staff for energy and land markets.  He is a company shareholder and brings more than three decades of experience in regulatory permitting, site assessment and environmental field studies to his projects.  Mr. Hansen’s current focus is on project management of Westwood’s larger projects in renewable energy.  He has been involved in field studies and permitting at scores of wind and solar projects throughout the U.S. 

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Rochelle Rabeler is a partner at the law firm Holland & Hart.  Her practice focuses on project development, project financing, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, with a particular emphasis in the renewable energy and infrastructure sector.  Ms. Rabeler advises developers, investors, sponsors and independent power producers in connection with wind, solar and geothermal projects throughout the United States, varying in size from 100 kw to 1000 MW. She routinely drafts and negotiates project financing and hedge documents, purchase and sale agreements, and project development contracts, including physical and virtual power purchase agreements, land control documents, operations and maintenance agreements, construction contracts and shared facilities agreements.

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Amr Sallam is Managing Director of Geotechnical Services and Vice President at NV5.  He brings a quarter century of experience in geotechnical engineering and foundation design on numerous geotechnical and structural projects throughout Florida, the Continental U.S., and internationally. His background includes being a lead designer and director of Wind Turbine P&H Foundation Design services nationwide, utilizing numerical modeling through 2D and 3D Finite Element Analysis. He has published papers for the AWEA yearly conference and presented on state-of-the-art wind turbine foundation design and has provided expert witness services for wind turbine foundation designs for multiple law firms.  Dr. Sallam holds a PhD in Civil Engineering (Geotechnical) from the University of South Florida and has taught Foundation Engineering, Advanced Geotechnical Engineering, and Geotechnical Design courses at the University of Central Florida since 2006 as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Sallam also teaches Geotechnical Engineering for the School of P.E. in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, and Washington since 2009. 

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Matt Salmi is Senior Product Manager at General Electric (GE) Renewable Energy

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Fernando Sosa is a Director in the Machinery & Equipment (M&E) Valuation & Advisory practice for Cushman & Wakefield. With more than two decades of experience, he specializes in appraisals of tangible assets in both domestic and international valuation projects. These appraisals are performed for a variety of purposes, including asset-based financing, purchase price allocations, cost segregation, insurance purposes, personal property tax appraisals, federal tax compliance, managing and financial reporting, mergers and acquisitions, feasibility study, and litigation support. Mr. Sosa is fluent in Spanish and has performed appraisals for clients throughout the United States and for multinational clients in England, Spain, México, Panamá, Dominican Republic, Chile, El Salvador, Colombia, and Puerto Rico. He is an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) designated in the discipline of Machinery and Technical Specialties with the American Society of Appraisers and a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS).

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Jarek Stopczyk is Business Strategy Senior Manager for North American Utilities at Accenture Strategy.  He has served more than a decade in the energy industry in roles that include consulting, development, asset management, operations, and manufacturing. His experience includes wind power asset management in USA, Canada, and Poland.  In his prior role at RWE North America, Mr. Stopczyk was Manager for Long Term Operations responsible for development of the US portfolio repower strategy, development of repower projects, and long-term asset value improvements.  He earned an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.

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Jack Weisz is Director of Repower and Long-Term Service Agreement Sales in North America at General Electric (GE) Renewable Energy.

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Gary Durden is a Partner and Managing Director with CohnReznick Capital based in the New York office. He provides transaction management and advisory services for clients in the sustainable energy sector, including corporate M&A, capital raises, and structured finance solutions for wind and solar projects.  Mr. Durden has closed equity investments in more than 5GW of utility-scale and C&I wind and solar projects, including tax equity, cash equity, and sale lease-back transactions.  He was previously a Senior Vice President at GE Energy Financial Services, where he led deal teams in the structuring, diligence, and negotiation of investments in renewable energy projects in the US and Canada.  Prior to GE EFS, he worked at Standard & Poor’s, developing models used by commercial banks for assessing the credit risk of C&I companies.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Durden served as an officer in the United States Navy, supervising the operation of nuclear reactor plants on aircraft carriers and teaching college-level classes to university students enrolled in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps.  He is a CFA charter holder and earned an MBA from Villanova University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with Highest Honors from the University of Florida.

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Gary Fleming is Risk Engineering Practice Leader at PERse, which he joined in 2019 to expand and develop the team’s risk engineering consulting capabilities.  He has more than 35 years of experience as a property and machinery breakdown risk control engineer with recent focus on renewable power including hydroelectric, onshore wind, solar, geothermal, battery energy storage, bio-energy and offshore wind.  Prior to joining PERse, Mr. Fleming was part of the Renewables Expert Team at a leading insurer and helped develop many of its loss prevention guidelines and underwriting tools. He is a registered Professional Engineer in North Carolina and is certified by the Global Wind Organization (GWO) with his OnShore Basic Safety Training (BST). Mr. Fleming is also a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Associate and was formerly licensed by the National Board of Boiler & Pressure Vessel Inspectors Commission.

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Trudy Forsyth is Principal of a virtual consulting company, Wind Advisors Team, that specializes in distributed wind technology , markets, and policies. She has co-led a 9-year international research task under International Energy Agency Task 27 and co-led two revisions of International Electrotechnical Commission IEC 61400-2 standards (revisions two and three).  From 1994  2012, Ms. Forsyth led the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) small and distributed wind turbine program, which included working with OEMs to develop new technology, stabilizing the U.S. market by standing up an independent U.S. certification body and co-developing American small wind turbine standards, and co- managing with the Department of Energy Wind Office on program development and strategies. She supported the Wind Powering America program in developing educational material and conducting outreach on the topics of small and distributed wind.  Throughout her career she has seved on many boards and is currently active with the Distributed Wind Energy Association as the vice chair.  She co-founded the Women of Wind Energy in 2005, which later became the Women of Renewable Industry and Sustainable Energy.  Over her career Ms. Forsyth has been recognized often, including an NREL Outstanding Community/Professional Service award (2003), Women of Wind Energy with a Woman of the Year award (2012), and most recently by the American Solar Energy Society (2022) as an ASES Fellow. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado-Denver.

We will be using Microsoft Teams to facilitate your participation in the upcoming event. You do not need to have an existing Teams account in order to participate in the broadcast – the course will play in your browser and you will have the option of using a microphone to speak with the room and ask questions, or type any questions in via the chat window and our on-site representative will relay your question to the instructor.

• IMPORTANT NOTE: After November 30 you will not be able to join a Teams meeting using Internet Explorer 11. Microsoft recommends downloading and installing the Teams app if possible. You may also use the Edge browser or Chrome.
• You will receive a meeting invitation will include a link to join the meeting.
• Separate meeting invitations will be sent for the morning and afternoon sessions of the course.
  • You will need to join the appropriate meeting at the appropriate time.
• If you are using a microphone, please ensure that it is muted until such time as you need to ask a question.
• The remote meeting connection will be open approximately 30 minutes before the start of the course. We encourage you to connect as early as possible in case you experience any unforeseen problems.

Please Note: This event is being conducted entirely online. All attendees will connect and attend from their computer, one connection per purchase. For details please see our FAQ

If you are unable to attend at the scheduled date and time, we make recordings available to all attendees for 7 days after the event

REGISTER NOW FOR THIS EVENT:

Wind Project Repowering and Retrofit Due Diligence Summit

March 28-29, 2023 | Online

Your registration may be transferred to a member of your organization up to 24 hours in advance of the event. Cancellations must be received on or before February 24, 2023 in order to be refunded and will be subject to a US $195.00 processing fee per registrant. No refunds will be made after this date. Cancellations received after this date will create a credit of the tuition (less processing fee) good toward any other EUCI event. This credit will be good for six months from the cancellation date. In the event of non-attendance, all registration fees will be forfeited. In case of conference cancellation, EUCIs liability is limited to refund of the event registration fee only. For more information regarding administrative policies, such as complaints and refunds, please contact our offices at 303-770-8800

Credits

EUCI is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard. IACET is recognized internationally as a standard development organization and accrediting body that promotes quality of continuing education and training.

EUCI is authorized by IACET to offer 1.3 CEUs for this event

 

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Upon successful completion of this event, program participants interested in receiving CPE credits will receive a certificate of completion.

Course CPE Credits: 15.5
There is no prerequisite for this Course.
Program field of study: Specialized Knowledge
Program Level: Basic
Delivery Method: Group Internet Based
Advanced Preparation: None

EUCI is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its web site: www.nasbaregistry.org