Education
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George Washington University Law School, J.D., 1981
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University of Michigan, B.A., 1978
Bar Admissions
Court Admissions
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U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
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U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 9th and 10th Circuits
Awards and Honors
- SAI Global’s Ethics and Legal Content Advisory Board
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Amy Koch, chair of the firm’s Energy and Natural Resources Practice Group, has advised clients on the effect of federal and state energy regulation on utility industry transactions, on the development, management, and operation of utility assets, and on electricity restructuring matters for nearly 25 years.
Since joining Patton Boggs in September 2003, she has advised foreign and domestic investors and lenders on federal and state energy regulatory and transactional matters involving the successful acquisition, debt restructuring, and financing of electric generating assets totaling over $13 billion in value. This work has included the development of ownership structures that allow for the trading of equity interests in electric generating facilities without the prior approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the FERC applications necessary to close such transactions, and ongoing FERC compliance matters.
Ms. Koch also represents asset owners and operators in compliance matters involving FERC’s hydroelectric, electric, and oil pipeline regulations. In addition, she advises power marketers and industrial companies on the development of transmission and interconnection facilities, wholesale and retail power agreements, transmission agreements, retail access opportunities, participation in RTO/ISO markets, and electricity restructuring market design issues.
Ms. Koch has also advised foreign governments and foreign electric utilities on privatization and restructuring options for generating plants and on electricity restructuring issues, including the creation of legally enforceable market rules, and the design of electricity regulatory regimes.
Representative Matters:
- Advised the administrative agent to a group of lenders on the structuring of an ownership company arrangement to minimize the risk of federal energy regulation of the lenders in a sale in lieu of foreclosure involving 3,000 MWs of generation from the lenders’ initial indirect acquisition of those assets through the subsequent recapitalization of the downstream project companies in late 2005 and obtained FERC approvals of the evolving ownership structures.
- Represented the project companies of the aforementioned holding company on various regulatory matters, including the preparation of reliability must run or “RMR” agreements, ISO New England (ISO-NE) market design issues, the settlement of an interconnection charge dispute with its local utility before FERC and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and compliance with FERC policies with respect to market-based rate authorization requirements.
- Represented the administrative agent to a group of lenders on the structuring of a holding company arrangement to minimize the risk of federal energy regulation of the lenders in a sale in lieu of foreclosure of 545 MWs of generation and obtained FERC approval of the structure.
- Represented asset purchasers on the federal and state energy regulatory constraints to the joint ownership of “inside-the-fence” interconnection facilities in four transactions involving the monetization of industrial generating assets and obtained FERC approval of the arrangements.
- Advised the developer of a new transmission/interconnection facility in New England on FERC and ISO-NE compliance matters.
- Advised foreign investors on the energy regulatory risks associated with three potential major acquisition opportunities in the U.S. electricity industry.
- Represented power marketers on FERC regulatory compliance matters, participation in RTO/ISOs, negotiation of wholesale and retail power sales arrangements (both EEI and non-EEI contract models), retail and wholesale transmission agreements, and interconnection agreements.
- Advised several industrial companies with self-generation on electricity restructuring issues, new power sales and purchase opportunities, and potential new corporate structures to minimize regulation by FERC and state public utility commissions.
- Represented a non-traditional utility owning a small oil pipeline on FERC regulatory compliance issues.
- Served on a team of advisors to RAO-UES, the largest utility in Russia, on electricity restructuring issues, including the development of a market design, the creation of legally enforceable market rules, and an electricity regulatory regime.
- Advised the Republic of Georgia’s state-owned electric utility on the introduction of private management for the Varzikhe Hydroelectric Cascade as part of the long-term privatization and rehabilitation of the four facilities.
Professional Affiliations:
Energy Bar Association
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