Contract innovations and templates: the NEES transaction

The ongoing restructuring of the US electricity industry is seeing large amounts of generating capacity being put on the market as utilities convert to wires-only businesses. Extricating generation from previously integrated organisations throws up interesting legal challenges. Possible templates for agreements to perform this separation were drawn up for the acquisition of New England Electric System’s generating assets by USGen, and are described here. Alan Gover Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Houston