We’re not your typical hired gun. Providing testimony as an expert witness in a regulatory/adjudicatory or litigation complex is not for everyone. SEA senior staff have the experience, track record and credibility as industry experts to fulfill this role. But not every time. We’re:
- Selective. Meaning, we won’t say just anything. If you’re looking for someone to front a position that is not supported by rigorous, objective analysis… we politely decline.
- Principled. We only take on expert witness engagements that meet our filter for highly principled positions. We’ve carefully built, curated, lived, and defended our reputation as an independent, trusted voice. We play the long game and won’t compromise our reputation for a short-term lucrative engagement.
- Expert. SEA is there when you need a renewable market expertise who understands both the big picture and all the important details.
- Effective. The combination of our experience, credibility, principles, and selectivity, make us effective witnesses. If and when we elect to take on an assignment, we’re rock solid. We don’t bring the baggage of conflicting past sworn testimony lurking to undermine our credibility. Our work in this realm aligns with principled positions. We hold ourselves to a high standard of analytical rigor and defend our reputation. We won’t wither under cross.
Our sponsored expert support comes into play in three situations, each relying on SEA’s subject matter expertise and analytic rigor:
- Analysis Support. Supporting and defending a client’s (or ours on behalf of a client) decision, methods, approaches, or analyses. We typically play this role on behalf of an agency or stakeholder, typically before a state commission. Illustrative examples include:
- Supporting analysis of long-term contract procurement results
- Presenting and defending results of cost or benefits analyses
- Defending the reasonableness, cost-effectiveness, or benchmarking of a negotiated transaction
- Proponent Support. Supporting a client’s advocacy for a position, typically before a state commission, or behalf of commission staff, in a clean energy-focused utility regulatory docket, through qualitative and quantitative analysis supported by expert witness testimony, sponsored direct and rebuttal testimony, and support of briefs, interrogatories and data requests. Illustrative engagements have included:
- Sponsoring testimony in support of recommended ceiling prices for the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Growth program and Standard Contract program annually for over a decade
- Analysis in support of direct and rebuttal testimony of experts in dockets supporting approval of the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program tariff, and changes to New Hampshire’s net metering tariffs
- Advancing a state agency position in an Integrated Resources Plan docket
- Presenting and defending incentive design for voluntary green power program
- Illustrating the hedging benefits of a procurement/contracting approach
- Justifying the results of a negotiated rulemaking settlement for a renewable energy policy
- Litigation and Enforcement Support. Settling a dispute that has landed in litigation or arbitration, typically with money at stake, or supporting an attorney general or agency with enforcement of laws or regulations Deploying our expertise can result in a favorable financial resolution or defend your commercial interests against spurious claims. To date, all the disputes SEA has been involved in that have concluded have either resulted in clear wins for our clients or settlements.
- Illustrative commercial engagements have included reviewing the veracity and reasonableness of damage claims related to expected revenue streams, financial losses, or damages at the heart of contractual disputes.
- Enforcement support has included forensic assessment of the veracity of claims or market rules, eligibility or expectations and the root of contractual disputes.
- Illustrative subject matter has included revenue streams accrued, lost opportunities, offsetting retail rates of behind-the-meter load to direct wholesale market participation, RECs and SRECs, capacity, incentive qualification and program eligibility, forecasting and backcasting.
