What tends to be contested
Power purchase and offtake agreements, where the argument is usually about availability, price adjustment, or termination. Interconnection and curtailment, where a project cannot deliver what it was built to deliver. Construction and equipment performance on solar, wind, and storage projects, including warranty and output guarantees. On the traditional side, lease and royalty disputes, pipeline and easement matters, and fuel supply. Then the financial layer: hedges, commodity contracts, and disagreements among the investors and sponsors behind a project. Many of these begin as ordinary commercial disagreements and only later touch a regulator.
Why the record is unusual
Much of what decides an energy matter is machine generated. Metering and production data, outage and maintenance logs, and dispatch records often settle questions that correspondence cannot. Notices sent under the agreement matter a great deal, particularly force majeure and default notices, and what was actually claimed at the time tends to constrain what can be argued later. Add interconnection correspondence, permits, and environmental filings. Confidentiality provisions are common and they affect how much of this can be shared, so it is worth knowing early what you are permitted to disclose and to whom.
Two tracks at the same time
A dispute can proceed in court or in arbitration while a proceeding before an agency runs alongside it on a separate schedule, under different rules, with a different decision maker. What happens in one can affect the other, and positions taken in an agency filing are rarely forgotten. Agencies differ considerably in how they handle complaints, rehearing, and appeals, so no single description covers them all and we do not assume one. Deadlines apply and they differ by forum, by state, and by type of claim. The first thing we sort out is which track is actually driving the outcome and which one is following.
