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    Patrick Ferguson

    Partner

    San Francisco

    Patrick represents many of the world's largest independent power producers in the negotiation of power purchase agreements, tolling agreements and other contracts to support development of energy, storage and transmission projects.  

    Patrick has extensive experience leading energy development projects across a wide range of technologies, including solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels, and natural gas peaking and combined-cycle plants. He has negotiated gigawatts of energy storage tolling and capacity agreements with both utilities and commercial and industrial offtakers. He also regularly advises major power companies on the sale of energy and capacity from existing generation assets, with deep familiarity in WSPP, EEI, and ISDA contracting frameworks.

    A recognized authority in energy regulation, Patrick is at the forefront of many of the sector’s most innovative projects over the past two decades. He is currently advising on a diverse portfolio of commercial structures to power and develop data centers, including both in-front-of-the-meter and behind-the-meter solutions.

    Patrick is ranked as a market leader by Chambers USA, Legal 500 USA, and Best Lawyers. He is also the editor of Megawatts to Megabytes: Orrick’s 2025 Guide to Developing, Financing & Powering Data Centers, the firm’s definitive publication on data center infrastructure and energy strategy.

    • Project Development

      • Geothermal developers in the negotiation and drafting of commercial agreements with utilities and corporate offtakers across the Western US.
      • Storage developers in long-term tolling and capacity agreements for 3+GWs of energy storage capacity across the country, including in CAISO, ERCOT, MISO, SPP and PJM markets.
      • Developers with projects involving “novel” technologies, including carbon capture and sequestration, aggregated demand resource, long-duration storage, and pumped hydro storage.

      Power Purchase Agreements

      • Geothermal power produces in the sale of bundled renewable energy and capacity to numerous California utilities and community choice aggregators. 
      • Large independent power producers in sale of bundled energy and capacity from a wide range of existing and new-build resources, including combined-cycle gas units, solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and energy storage resources to utilities and corporate offtakers.
      • Renewable and storage developers in bidding, negotiation, and sale of RA to California load serving entities, including import and pseudo-tie resources.

      Behind-the-Meter Projects

      • Independent power producer in the development of 2+ GWs of distributed solar + storage resources behind the meter to support green hydrogen and data center loads.
      • Corporate buyer in the purchase of a 30 MW solar+storage facility to support its on-site operations
      • Utility in developed of Virtual Power Plan model to purchase and aggregate of thousands of residential solar + storage devices to be operated as a centralized demand response resource.
      • Corporate and utility buyers in the purchase of renewable energy and capacity, including through PPAs, and hedging transactions as well as purchase and sale agreements to acquire utility ownership of the resources.

      Resource Adequacy Contracting

      • California’s largest independent power producer in the structuring, negotiation, and sale of resource adequacy capacity (RA) from natural gas, geothermal, solar, and energy storage resources.
      • Renewable developers in bidding, negotiation, and sale of RA to California load serving entities, including import and pseudo-tie resources.
      • Arizona utility in purchase and aggregation of thousands of residential solar + storage devices to be operated as a centralized demand response resource.
      • Investors and other market participants in establishing CAISO wholesale market participation and preparation of enabling agreements (WSPP, EEI, ISDA).

      Transmission and Interconnection

      • Regulatory and commercial counsel related to development of the HVDC TransWest Express Transmission project.
      • Merchant transmission developers in the CAISO and MISO competitive transmission markets.
      • Independent power producers in the negotiation of interconnection agreements, commercial arrangements, and related dispute resolution with utilities and other transmission owners.