Storage Business Models and Economics

Bill Rappolt

Bill Rappolt is a partner in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. He is a member of the Energy Industry Team and Real Estate, Land Use and Environmental Practice Group.

Areas of Practice

Bill represents clients in the natural gas, electric and oil/liquids industries in commercial transactions and before federal agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), state utility commissions and appellate courts. Bill often represents natural gas pipelines and storage providers, electric generators, power marketing and trading companies, commercial class electric customers, electric utilities, independent electric transmission providers and oil/liquids pipelines and storage providers. He has worked across the renewable energy sector, including on wind, solar and biomass projects, and on electric battery storage projects.

Bill aids clients with rate-making issues involving cost of service, return on equity and rate design. He also advises and represents energy industry participants regarding tariff-related issues, natural gas pipeline certificates, Department of Energy (DOE) export and import authorizations, market-based rate authorizations, compliance with energy market rules and regulations, standards of conduct, interconnection rules and negotiations, and purchases and sales of energy facilities and companies.

Prior to practicing law, Bill was an energy industry analyst in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) Office of Administrative Litigation. In this role, he worked on numerous natural gas, oil/liquids and electric matters dealing with utilities' rate making issues, interconnection requests and complaints concerning tariff compliance. He was responsible for developing and presenting positions on regulatory issues set for hearing before administrative law judges at FERC.

On a pro bono basis, Bill represents victims of domestic violence seeking Civil Protection Orders and victims of employer based discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), District of Columbia Human Rights Act (DCHRA) and the District of Columbia Family and Medical Leave Act (DCFMLA).

Paul J. Kaufman

Paul has been an energy lawyer since 1984. Over a career of almost 30 years, he has negotiated all manner of project contracts, including power purchase agreements, hedges, interconnection and transmission agreements and equipment procurement and construction contracts. He represents parties in M&A transactions involving development and operating wind and solar generating projects. He works with renewable energy technologies, including on large wind, solar and biomass projects, and on conventional power plants using fossil fuels, as well as gas storage projects. In addition, he negotiates joint ventures, development agreements and precedent agreements for renewable energy project investors and developers and represented lenders in the review and analysis of project agreements for renewable generation projects in Central America, the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Paul returned to private practice in 2012 after serving as Executive Vice President (EVP) of Transactions with enXco, Inc., now EDF Renewable Energy. At enXco, Paul was responsible for the company’s commercial transactions, implementation of its projects and risk analytics. As EVP, he was involved in the marketing of output from wind and solar projects, the sale of those projects in “turn-key” transactions and the acquisition of projects for renewable technologies. As enXco’s General Counsel, he was responsible for all legal and regulatory affairs of company and communications on legal matters with its French parent company. He managed the legal aspects of the regulatory matters affecting the company as well as, project development, commercial transactions, corporate governance, corporate structure and mergers and acquisitions. Paul was the lead lawyer on large complex transactions. As both EVP and General Counsel, Paul participated in board and other management meetings involving risk review, strategic direction, litigation strategy, transaction origination and transaction approvals.

Prior to joining enXco, Paul was General Counsel for Iberdrola Renewables, the North American renewable energy subsidiary of Iberdrola. At Iberdrola (which was formerly known as PPM Energy, Inc.), his responsibilities were similar to those undertaken at enXco. However, in addition to its wind generation business, Iberdrola also operated gas storage and power and gas trading businesses.

Paul is a frequent speaker on energy topics, focusing on the acquisition of operating renewable energy projects. He is a member of the California and Oregon bars.

Ned West

Ned spent 25 years in the utility power industry developing Air Quality Control Systems before pivoting in 2018 to focus on energy storage. He is now involved with Southern Company subsidiaries in behind-the-meter and grid-connected battery energy storage projects. He holds an electrical engineering degree from The University of Alabama and is a registered Professional Engineer.

Patrick Balducci

Patrick Balducci has 25 years of professional experience as an economist and project manager. He currently serves as a Chief Economist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) where he has been employed since 2001. He is currently leading the industry acceptance area of the PNNL Energy Storage Program, and has extensive experience in modeling the benefits of energy infrastructure and in leading research and development efforts supporting the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the electric power industry. He has authored over 130 publications, including journal articles, conference proceedings, and technical reports and is currently leading research efforts evaluating the benefits of 1.6 GW / 18 GWh in energy storage capacity at 16 sites across the U.S. He is also leading efforts to enhance economic assessment tools for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). He serves on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Northwest Regional Economics Conference. He holds a BS in Economics from Lewis and Clark College, where he graduated with honors, and an MSc in Applied Environmental Economics from the University of London, Imperial College of London.

Dr. Imre Gyuk

After taking a B.S. from Fordham University, Dr. Gyuk did graduate work at Brown University on Superconductivity. Having received a Ph.D. in Theoretical Particle Physics from Purdue University he became a Research Associate at Syracuse. As an Assistant Professor he taught Physics, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Architecture at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Gyuk became an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Kuwait University where he became interested in issues of sustainability. Dr. Gyuk joined the Department of Energy to manage the Thermal and Physical Storage program. For the past two decades he has directed the Electrical Energy Storage research program in the Office of Electricity, developing a wide portfolio of storage technologies for a broad spectrum of applications. He supervised the $185M ARRA stimulus funding for Grid Scale Energy Storage Demonstrations and is now partnering with the States on numerous storage projects for grid resilience. His work has led to 12 R&D 100 awards, two EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from ESA and NAATBatt. He is internationally recognized as a leader in the energy storage field.

Michael P. Dunnigan

Bio coming soon.

Alex Eller

Alex Eller is a senior research analyst contributing to Guidehouse Insights' Utility-Scale Energy Storage and Energy Storage Systems Tracker solutions. Eller specializes in global market analysis and competitive assessments to evaluate new products, company strategies, and forecast market growth for energy storage and other distributed energy technologies.

Prior to joining Guidehouse Insights, Eller served as an account manager at Energy Acuity, where he was also the lead analyst for a research project on the investment strategies of US power utilities. He has worked with diverse clients, including utilities, Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms, technology startups, and leading software providers to ensure they have a complete understanding of their target markets and the competitive landscape in the emerging distributed energy ecosystem. Eller has been cited in numerous industry publications and media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Utility Dive, and Electric Light & Power. He holds an MBA from the University of Colorado Boulder and a BSBA in international business from the University of Denver.