Seth T. Lucia

Seth Lucia is of counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Morrison & Foerster. He focuses his practice on energy regulatory, transactional and policy matters.

Seth counsels clients on a wide range of energy issues before federal and state regulatory bodies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and various state utility commissions. He advises on all areas of electric utility, power and transmission regulation, including issues arising under the Federal Power Act, the Public Utility Holding Company Act and the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. Seth assists clients in obtaining regulatory authorizations for major energy transactions such as utility mergers and purchases or sales of utility assets or renewable projects. He also advises companies on wholesale power and transmission matters, Independent System Operator (ISO) and Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) rules and market issues, interconnection services and regulatory compliance and training.

Seth also advises a broad range of clients on policy and compliance matters involving climate change.

Seth advises on various energy-related agreements including power purchase, generator interconnection, wire-to-wire transmission interconnection and joint dispatch agreements. He leads regulatory diligence in various energy mergers and acquisitions involving renewable and conventional energy facilities. Seth also participates in litigation and settlement proceedings at FERC, as well as appeals of FERC decisions. His energy experience also includes counseling clients in hydroelectric matters before FERC, including relicensing and license transfer proceedings.

Prior to joining MoFo, Seth was of counsel at an international law firm in its energy and regulatory group. Seth received his J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law and earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. Seth also worked as an associate consultant for a management and engineering consultancy prior to law school where he conducted Phase I environmental due diligence assessments and audits of energy and manufacturing facilities in the United States and Latin America.

Representative Experience

• Regulatory advice on a joint venture between a solar developer and large insurance and financial services company for the formation of an infrastructure fund to acquire and own utility and commercial solar assets
• Regulatory counseling related to transaction approval at Public Utility Commission of Texas in connection with formation of joint venture and new affiliations with various wind and solar project companies
• Regulatory matters for a joint venture between a solar developer and a global asset management company to form a distributed renewable energy company that provides large pools of institutional capital direct exposure to the U.S. distributed generation market
• Regulatory guidance on market issues for electric storage resources to participate in RTO ancillary services markets
• Regulatory guidance on RTO market issues for a $1 billion project financing and equity arrangements for the construction of large combined-cycle natural gas electric generating facility located in the PJM footprint
• Regulatory diligence and transaction approval at FERC for a multi-billion dollar utility merger (now terminated)
• Regulatory diligence and transaction approvals at FERC for a multi-billion dollar revised stock-for-stock merger of equals transaction between transmission and distribution utility companies
• Transaction approvals at FERC related to the utility merger acquisition for nearly $10 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt
• Transaction approvals at FERC related to the sale of a large hydroelectric project to a utility
• The filing of several pleadings in a contested application before the FERC and a new permanent license for a large hydroelectric project consisting of multiple dams and reservoirs with a total installed capacity of more than 200 MW
• Transaction approvals at FERC related to the acquisition of a utility scale wind generation facility located in the southwest
• Transaction approvals at FERC for a change in control related to the corporate separation of a global industrial company with energy assets into two separate, publicly-traded companies
• Regulatory advice and transaction approvals by FERC for the acquisition of a large natural gas-fueled electric generation plant located in the southeast
• Authorization by FERC of transmission tariff amendments and a joint dispatch agreement among multiple utilities to conduct joint dispatching of combined generation resources
• Transaction approvals at FERC related to the sale of 100 percent of the utility’s stock to a leading international infrastructure investment fund
• Transaction approvals at FERC related to the sale of 49.9 percent interest in the owner of a gas-fired plant to an affiliate of a global investment fund
• Transaction approvals at FERC related to the sale of multiple power marketer entities to a public utility