Penland, Thomas Lewis

THOMAS L. PENLAND, JR. is a Partner in the firm's Energy Law practice group.  As commercial and regulatory counsel for the wholesale power generating business unit of one of the largest electric utility companies in the country, Tom has negotiated hundreds of short-term and long-term power sale agreements, including complex "all requirements" power supply arrangements with several large electric membership cooperatives and municipal power suppliers.  He has also assisted energy traders in negotiating and obtaining regulatory approvals for umbrella trading agreements with other major energy traders active in the Eastern Interconnection.

In his commercial practice, Tom has acted as lead counsel in negotiating, drafting and obtaining regulatory approvals for several electric generating facility ownership and operating agreements, numerous generator interconnection agreements, transmission service and operating agreements, electric reliability control area services and interchange agreements, electricity and gas balancing agreements, natural gas transportation service agreements, and fuel tolling agreements.  He routinely counsels clients regarding deal structure and risk management issues, including fuel risk, counterparty credit risk and position hedging.

In his regulatory practice, Tom has represented traditional electric utilities, independent power merchants, and independent transmission providers before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC") and the Georgia Public Service Commission, including tariff and service agreement filings, traditional rate cases, affiliate transactions, market-rate matters, asset transfer matters, transmission service matters, control area operations issues, integrated resource planning and restructuring issues.  He is currently counseling clients and assisting in establishing strategic positions regarding FERC's proposed rulemakings implementing the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Standardized Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreement, Open Access Transmission Tariff issues, Standards of Conduct issues and Codes of Conduct issues.

Prior to joining Balch & Bingham, Tom obtained extensive hands-on experience in the electric utility business. He was a power plant project engineer for seven years with the Georgia Power Company, responsible for starting-up power plants and managing large engineering projects. 

While attending law school, Tom was a full-time technical consultant and legal intern with the law firm of Winston & Strawn in their Washington, D.C. energy practice.  Tom has hands-on experience with the day-to-day issues which often arise in the operation of an integrated electric grid and practical advice for dealing with potentially complex wholesale and retail electric service, contract and regulatory issues.