Ilia Levitine
Partner
Duane Morris LLP
505 9th Street, N.W., Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20004-2166
USA
Phone: +1 202 776 5218
Fax: +1 202 478 2161
Email: ILevitine@duanemorris.com

Ilia Levitine practices in the area of energy and resources. For more than fifteen years, he has advised electric and gas utility companies, regional transmission organizations (RTOs), independent power producers, renewable energy resources and industrial customers on a wide range of issues involving the Federal Power Act (FPA), the Natural Gas Act (NGA), the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and many other federal and state energy statutes and regulations. As an experienced FERC practitioner, Mr. Levitine has successfully represented clients in numerous FERC rate and complaint cases, evidentiary hearings, settlement conferences, rulemakings and hydrolicensing proceedings, including on review before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He also has been involved in NERC compliance issues and state utility matters, including assistance to state energy regulators with reviewing rate cases and developing cutting-edge regulations.

Mr. Levitine has deep knowledge of competitive electricity markets. He represents the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO), the first FERC-certified RTO, in complex regulatory and judicial proceedings involving the multistate transmission grid and sophisticated energy and operating reserve markets managed by this client. He also assists clients with various regulatory issues arising in other RTO market footprints, such as PJM Interconnection and ISO New England. Mr. Levitine is familiar with all major FERC initiatives involving organized electricity markets, transmission pricing and cost allocation, electric reliability standards, open access transmission reform and generator interconnection and procedures, and has represented clients in connection with many of these seminal rulemakings and in related proceedings. Throughout his career, he has advised virtually every class of electric industry player, including renewable, "clean energy" and hydro resources, on many contractual, energy market, open access and other regulatory and transactional issues, such as market-based rate authority, QF/EWG status, power purchase agreement (PPA) structuring and negotiation and generator interconnection agreements and procedures.

On the natural gas side, Mr. Levitine represents a well-known developer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in LNG terminal certification proceedings at FERC. He also counsels clients on various LNG certification and compliance issues arising under the Deepwater Port Act of 1974 and in connection with the Department of Energy's (DOE) LNG export/import permits. In addition, Mr. Levitine advised on various interstate pipeline and storage certification matters and on open access transportation issues.

To complement his FERC practice, Mr. Levitine has been active in the international energy field. In the recent years, he has advised national energy regulators, market and system operators and government-owned utilities in Vietnam, the Republic of the Philippines, Indonesia, Canada and the Russian Federation on issues ranging from energy markets reform to PPA restructuring and renegotiation. Representative matters include several energy market reform projects funded by the World Bank in Southeast Asia and Russia, a high-profile effort to renegotiate a dozen of Build-Own-Transfer PPAs for a developing country and an international arbitration involving imports of electric power into the United States.

Areas of Practice

• Energy Law
• Public Utilities Law
• International Law

Representative Matters

Electricity and Power Markets

• Acts as counsel to MISO on a broad range of regulatory issues involving MISO’s wholesale electricity markets and transmission system, service agreements, FPA Section 205 filings, member complaints, transmission cost allocation, joint operating agreements with other ISOs and RTOs, tariff rules and administration, accession and withdrawal of transmission owners, and NERC compliance.
• Represented NSTAR in FERC proceedings involving the restructuring and functioning of ISO-NE’s Forward Capacity Market.
• Counseled a foreign utility holding company on a potential FPA Section 203 application (indirect acquisition of a pub. utility holding company).
• Assisted a virtual trader with reviewing PJM’s balancing operating reserve market rules.
• Represented the District of Columbia Public Service Commission (DCPSC) before the DOE and FERC in proceedings to obtain emergency relief orders requiring Mirant Corporation to resume power production at its Alexandria, VA power plant.
• Provided assistance to DCPSC with the review and disposition of a general rate case filed by the Potomac Electric Power Company.
• Advised a Canadian industrial conglomerate on various energy regulatory aspects of acquiring six hydro-generation projects from their bankrupt U.S. owner, including: review of contractual arrangements, preparation of hydro license transfer applications, EWG applications, market-based rate (MBR) tariff filings, and FERC compliance and state utility filings.
• Drafted and negotiated FERC-jurisdictional PPAs and electric transmission and interconnection agreements for independent power producers located in California, Illinois and Maine; represented clients in QF certification and decertification proceedings before FERC and the D.C. Circuit; obtained QF waivers, MBRs and EWG status; advised on PUHCA compliance matters.
• Represented a California solar power producer in emergency relief proceedings at FERC, advised on energy regulatory aspects in a breach of contract action brought in a State court by the client against a major utility under a PURPA power purchase agreement.

LNG and Natural Gas

• Represents an international developer of LNG facilities in FERC’s NEPA pre-filing and NGA Section 3 LNG terminal certification proceedings.
• Advised LNG developers and producers on Deepwater Port Act offshore LNG terminal certification and compliance issues.
• Advised LNG developers on DOE's LNG export/import permit issues.
• Assisted a large industrial consumer of natural gas with NGA compliance matters.
• Assisted a local distribution company with FERC's storage facility certification issues.

Hydro

• Assisted clients with hydro license transfer applications.
• Represented a coalition of municipalities and school districts in the Niagara and St. Lawrence hydro project relicensing proceedings.

International Energy

• Developed a set of standard PPAs and dispute resolution and enforcement regulations for the Vietnamese Electricity Regulatory Authority in anticipation of the start-up of Vietnam’s competitive generation market.
• Through a World Bank-funded project, counseled the Energy Regulatory Commission of the Republic of the Philippines with respect to a market manipulation investigation in the Philippine wholesale electricity market.
• Acted as the project manager for a World Bank-funded project to design contractual arrangements for Russia's competitive wholesale electricity market; played a leading role in the development and drafting of associated agreements.
• Advised Indonesia’s government-owned electric utility company in power contract restructuring negotiations with international power project developers involving 27 PPAs and EPCs, and fuel supply and joint operating contracts.
• Represented a large Canadian hydro power producer in a commercial arbitration involving a PPA dispute with a group of New England electric utilities.

Professional Activities

• The Bar Association of the District of Columbia
• Energy Bar Association

Admissions

• District of Columbia
• New Jersey
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Education

• Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, M.P.A., 1996
• Washington and Lee University School of Law, J.D., 1995
• Guilford College, B.S., high honors, 1992

Experience

• Duane Morris LLP
  - Partner, 2006-present
  - Associate, 2004-2005
• CMS Cameron McKenna, Washington, D.C.
  - Associate, 2002-2003
• McKenna Long & Aldridge, Washington, D.C.
  - Associate, 1998-2002
• Travis & Gooch, Washington, D.C.
  - Associate, 1996-1998

Selected Publications

• Co-author, "HVDC Transmission: A Path to the Future?," The Electricity Journal, May 2010
• Co-author, "The Mobile-Sierra Doctrine, Part Deux," Public Utilities Fortnightly, March 2007
• Co-author, "Life Along the Potomac: What Federal Regulators Should Do to Ensure Security, Reliability, and Cleaner Air in Our Nation's Capital," Public Utilities Fortnightly, September 2006
• Author, "The Main Principles of Electric Reliability Regulation in the U.S.," Energorynok, January 2006
• Co-author, "Long-Term Power Purchase Agreements in a Restructured Electricity Industry," Wake Forest Law Review, 2005.
• Author, "Russia launches a competitive electricity market," Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence, December 2003
• Author, "In the aftermath of the Russian electricity law: establishing the new regulatory and contractual framework for competitive power markets," Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence, July 2003

Selected Speaking Engagements

• Speaker, System Operators and Electricity Markets Conference, Moscow, September 2007
• Speaker, Electric Reliability Regulation seminar sponsored by the Russian System Operator, Moscow, November 2005