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Patrick Ferguson

Partner

サンフランシスコ

Patrick represents many of the world's largest power producers at the forefront of the energy transition, guiding the development and operation of energy, storage, and transmission projects throughout the United States. 

Patrick Ferguson brings two decades of experience guiding clients through the development, financing, acquisition, and sale of some of the most innovative energy projects in the United States. His practice spans a wide range of technologies—including solar, wind, geothermal, energy storage, and natural gas peaking and combined-cycle plants—and he is recognized for his ability to navigate complex regulatory, commercial, and transactional challenges.

Patrick advises project sponsors at every stage of the development lifecycle. His work includes negotiating power purchase and long-term offtake agreements, physical and financial swaps, interconnection and engineering arrangements, operations and maintenance agreements, and management services agreements. He has led the negotiation of many gigawatts of energy storage tolling and capacity agreements with utilities as well as commercial and industrial offtakers, and regularly counsels major power companies on energy and capacity sales under WSPP, EEI, and ISDA contracting frameworks.

Patrick also plays a leading role in the rapidly expanding data center sector. He represents power producers and data center companies in the development of hyperscale facilities across the country, advising on power sleeving arrangements with utilities and behind-the-meter energy solutions. He is 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.

A recognized authority in energy regulation, Patrick has been at the forefront of many of the industry’s most significant and groundbreaking projects. Clients recommend him in Chambers USA for his “expert regulatory and commercial advice” and his “experience across a range of assets including solar and geothermal power plants and transmission lines.” He is ranked as a market leader by Chambers USA, Legal 500 USA, and Best Lawyers.

Patrick was recognized as "2026 Lawyer of the Year" by Best Lawyers for Energy Regulatory Law in California.

  • Project Development

    • Advised major independent power producers on the development of some of California’s first utility-scale energy storage projects.

    • Represented a leading U.S. energy company in negotiating and drafting commercial agreements with utilities and corporate offtakers across the Western U.S.

    • Assisted an Arizona utility in purchasing and aggregating thousands of residential solar+storage devices to operate as a centralized demand response resource.

    • Counseled developers pursuing projects with novel technologies, including carbon capture and sequestration, aggregated demand resources, long-duration storage, and pumped hydro storage.

    Offtake and Revenue Agreements

    • Represented storage developers in long-term tolling and capacity agreements totaling more than 3 GW of energy storage capacity across CAISO, ERCOT, MISO, SPP, and PJM.

    • Advised renewable developers in the bidding, negotiation, and sale of resource adequacy (RA) to California load-serving entities, including import and pseudo-tie resources.

    • Represented California’s largest independent power producer in structuring, negotiating, and selling RA capacity from natural gas, geothermal, solar, and energy storage resources.

    • Advised investors and market participants on establishing CAISO wholesale market participation and drafting enabling agreements (WSPP, EEI, ISDA).

    • Counseled independent power producers on the sale of bundled energy and capacity from combined-cycle gas, solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and energy storage resources to utilities and corporate offtakers.

    • Represented an independent power producer in the development of more than 2 GW of distributed solar+storage projects behind the meter to support green hydrogen and data center loads.

    • Advised a corporate buyer on the purchase of a 30 MW solar+storage facility for on-site operations.

    • Assisted a utility in developing a virtual power plant model to aggregate residential solar+storage resources into a centralized demand response asset.

    • Represented corporate and utility buyers in the purchase of renewable energy and capacity, including PPAs, hedging transactions, and purchase and sale agreements for utility ownership.

    Project M&A

    • Represented a private equity fund in acquiring a portfolio of operating solar and wind projects across the Western U.S.

    • Advised leading U.S. and foreign buyers and sellers on the purchase and sale of multiple gigawatts of development-stage and operating solar and wind facilities.

    • Guided U.S. project developers through due diligence and the sale of solar+storage projects.

    • Represented a leading U.S. developer in the sale and disposition of regulated transmission assets.

    Transmission and Interconnection

    • Provided regulatory and commercial counsel for the development of several high-voltage transmission projects in the WECC and CAISO regions.

    • Advised merchant transmission developers in the CAISO and MISO competitive transmission markets.

    • Represented independent power producers in negotiating interconnection agreements, commercial arrangements, and resolving related disputes with utilities and transmission owner.