About Karla Drinkwater
Karla Drinkwater is a power, utilities and infrastructure specialist. She has longstanding experience advising private sector and government clients, across the spectrum of the energy market, on major projects (including renewables and energy storage); energy transmission; energy regulation and reform; and the acquisition and divestment of interests in energy and infrastructure projects.
Karla’s experience includes advising:
- BESS/hybrid project offtake arrangements: developers, offtakers and financiers in relation to innovative offtaking structures from facilities with a storage component, including virtual tolling agreements, physical tolling agreements and revenue support contracts
- PPAs: developers, offtakers and financiers on the PPAs (ISDA-based, non-ISDA, corporate PPAs and proxy generation swaps) for renewable energy projects across the National Electricity Market (the NEM)
- Off-grid energy supply agreements: mining and resources clients on their on-site generation and energy supply arrangements for projects around Australia
- Capacity Investment Scheme, access rights and LTESA tenders: clients on their bids to secure revenue underwriting support contracts and REZ access rights, including from an initial 'go / no go' decision through to submission of financial value bids
- Central West Orana REZ: the underbidder consortium on its bid for the Central West Orana REZ
- Renewable energy and storage projects: on the acquisition, development and divestment of renewable energy and energy storage projects across the NEM, including on the due diligence, transaction structure and joint development arrangements for these assets
- Connection contracts: on generator and customer connection agreements, including the variation of connection arrangements to facilitate the installation of utility-scale batteries, in all NEM jurisdictions
- NEM participants: on
- regulatory and compliance requirements, including obtaining new registrations and transferring existing registrations, and availability of registration exemptions, under the National Electricity Rules (the NERs) and state-based energy legislation
- network connection requirements (including negotiation frameworks) under the NERs
- ring-fencing requirements
- bidding and dispatch obligations under the NERs and
- compliance training and programs.
- Electricity retail: large energy users across the NEM on their electricity retail arrangements
- Rio Tinto: on its investment in AI Carbon, an Australian carbon farming business
- AEMC: on the Transmission Access Reform project, TPIR Stage 2, the Material Change in Costs rule change and the Simplification of NER Definitions rule change
- NSW Treasury: on all aspects of the vendor due diligence, transaction structure and implementation of the long-term lease of the state’s electricity distribution businesses (Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy)
- Queensland Treasury: on the restructuring and divestment of:
- the Abbot Point Coal Terminal
- Queensland Rail and the subsequent national IPO
- the wind farm assets of Stanwell and Tarong Energy (five operating wind farms and 14 development sites across Australia)
- the Enertrade gas merchant and Tarong gas pipeline assets.