Six Takeaways: Shifting Market Dynamics in Corporate PPAs


On Thursday, May 7, McDermott Partners Ed Zaelke and Carl Fleming were joined by Christen Blum, head of the Renewable & Analytics Advisory practices at Edison Energy, to hear her thoughts on the current effects of COVID-19 on the corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) market.

Below are six takeaways from this week’s webinar:

    1. Despite COVID-19, there is still a strong appetite for corporate renewable procurement: market leaders (such as tech, pharma, and food and beverage companies) have been less impacted by COVID-19 and remain interested in renewable procurement. On the other hand, companies that have been hit the hardest by COVID-19 (such as services and hospitality businesses) have traditionally demonstrated limited interest in renewables; but industrial companies have seen the largest effect of COVID-19—they remain interested in renewables, but are delaying their procurement as they focus on their core business.

    2. Although the trend for buyer-friendly PPA terms remains strong, the market has seen a recent uptick in prices over 2019 such that they no longer remain as buyer-friendly as they have been in the recent past, but the impact of COVID-19 on these prices remains to be seen.

    3. In order to maintain more competitive PPA prices, developers are employing a number of price mitigation strategies, including price collars, upside sharing and developers bearing more merchant risk.

    4. Most corporate buyers are less time-sensitive than more traditional buyers; as such near-term wind projects are often losing out on opportunities to cheaper solar projects which are coming online later.

    5. Force majeure terms have become a major emphasis in PPA negotiations now.

    6. The best advice for developers is to treat their relationships with corporate partners as a long-term partnership and to act accordingly in negotiations.

Listen to the full webinar here.

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Edward Zaelke
Edward (Ed) Zaelke is the global co-head of the Energy & Project Finance Practice. He focuses his practice on project finance and private equity in renewable energy transactional matters. With more than 30 years of experience, he advises clients on all elements of alternative energy development and finance, including equity and debt financing, merger and acquisition transactions, equipment purchase and sale agreements, power purchase agreements, siting and other real property issues, governmental approvals, and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts. Read Ed Zaelke's full bio


Carl J. Fleming
Carl J. Fleming is a transactional lawyer whose principle areas of practice are renewable energy and private equity. He leads transactions throughout the US and worldwide for a number of the renewable industry’s leading developers, global private equity funds and Fortune 500 companies. He provides legal, commercial and strategic advice on the development, purchase and sale and financing of renewable energy projects in wind, solar, energy storage, electric vehicles and other low carbon solutions. A partner in our Washington, DC office, he also advises on a number of energy and climate change policy issues. Read Carl Fleming's full bio.


Seth B. Doughty
Seth B. Doughty focuses his practice on transactional matters in the energy industry. He has in-house experience at one of the largest Southern California utility companies. There, he gained experience drafting and negotiating a large variety of contracts, amendments and consents for supply and power procurement agreements. Read Seth Doughty's full bio.

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