Northgate. Energy Advisors Engage
Firm/Practice Areas

Six practice
areas.

The firm's work is organized around six interlocking practice areas. Most engagements draw on at least two; a typical IRP engagement, for example, sits between resource planning, regulatory strategy and market design.

The six practice areas described below reflect the way questions actually arrive at the firm. A utility approaching its decennial integrated resource plan generally needs counsel on portfolio design and on the procedural posture of the case before the commission. A hyperscale buyer pursuing 24/7 carbon-free energy needs both a procurement strategy and a market design view of where additional dispatchable clean firm capacity will actually clear.1

The work is interdisciplinary because the questions are. We staff engagements with mixed teams. Economist, lawyer, engineer. Under a single partner lead. Where a discipline is missing, we tell the client.

Methodology pages for each practice are available on request under non-disclosure. The summary below is necessarily compressed; the firm's working papers and commission filings provide the more complete treatment.2

01IRP

Integrated Resource Planning

From the founding question of the firm. We advise vertically integrated utilities and consolidated state agencies on the design, defense and amendment of integrated resource plans. Including capacity expansion modeling, portfolio optimization, and the contested record before state commissions.3

Methodology
  • Stochastic capacity expansion under multi-state load & gas-price uncertainty
  • ELCC & probabilistic accreditation for storage and hybrid resources
  • Portfolio stress tests against extreme-weather (1-in-25) reliability events
  • Settlement-portfolio design for split-commission decisions
Sample engagements
  • Lead IRP advisor to top-10 IOU under 70% decarbonization mandate (2024–26)
  • Reliability backstop modeling for a Mountain West cooperative consortium
  • Stochastic re-baseline of a 2030 generation portfolio for an SPP utility
Beyond ELCC: a probabilistic framing for accreditationWP 2026-02 What we got wrong about firm-clean (and what we didn't)Brief № 39
02DSM

Demand-Side Management

The economics of load. We design and evaluate energy-efficiency portfolios, dynamic-pricing pilots, flexible-demand tariffs and emerging DER aggregation programs. And we counsel utilities through the commission filings that govern them.4

Methodology
  • Cost-effectiveness testing under TRC, PAC and societal frameworks
  • Marginal-cost re-estimation for avoided-cost calculators
  • Customer-segment elasticity estimation for dynamic-pricing pilots
  • Order 2222 program design & baseline measurement protocols
Sample engagements
  • Flexible-demand tariff filing under CPUC R.22-07-005
  • Statewide DSM portfolio evaluation for a Northeast commission
  • Order 2222 aggregator participation rules in two MISO sub-zones
CPUC R.13-12-010: re-opening load-modifier after AB 205Brief № 42 The state of DER aggregation in 2026Brief № 38
03MD

Wholesale Market Design

Capacity constructs, energy & ancillary services, resource adequacy programs, and the interaction between market signals and resource accreditation. We file in ISO/RTO stakeholder processes on behalf of utilities, IPPs, state agencies and load-serving entities.5

Methodology
  • Counterfactual auction modeling (PJM BRA, ISO-NE FCA, NYISO ICAP)
  • Multi-zone resource-adequacy assessments (CAISO RA, WRAP)
  • Scarcity pricing & ORDC parameter calibration
  • Capacity-accreditation rule design (ELCC, marginal-ELCC, seasonal)
Sample engagements
  • Counsel of record, PJM capacity market reform Phase II (2024)
  • Western Resource Adequacy Program rule design. Multi-state cohort
  • NYISO Carbon Pricing technical conference (2023, ongoing)
PJM's capacity auction cliff & the MOPR rewindWP 2026-03 Why scarcity pricing still under-prices reliabilityWP 2025-08
04REG

Regulatory Strategy

Rate cases, regulatory affairs, expert testimony and policy design before FERC, state commissions and the federal courts of appeals. The firm's regulatory practice is led by Raphael Mendoza, former ALJ at the CPUC.6

Methodology
  • Cost-of-service rate case design & revenue requirement audit
  • Expert witness pre-filed testimony & deposition preparation
  • NOPR analysis and structured commission-engagement plans
  • State-court appellate strategy for energy regulatory orders
Sample engagements
  • FERC Order 1920 compliance strategy for a Mid-Atlantic IOU
  • General rate case before the NYPSC, 2024 test year
  • Expert testimony before MNPUC on storage cost recovery
Order 1920 implementation: state-of-play, 18 months inBrief № 40 The new rate case: load growth & capital pressureWP 2025-11
05M&A

M&A & Capital Advisory

Commercial & regulatory diligence for infrastructure-capital sponsors, strategic acquirers and asset sellers. Asset-level revenue modeling, market-risk assessment, post-merger regulatory integration and the rare but real value of an honest "do not buy this asset" memo.7

Methodology
  • Asset-level revenue modeling under merchant, hybrid & tolled structures
  • Commercial-arrangement audit (PPAs, RUC, RA contracts, tolling)
  • Regulatory-risk diligence for utility & transmission acquisitions
  • Post-merger integration of regulatory affairs & resource planning
Sample engagements
  • Commercial diligence for a $2.1B West-Texas storage-portfolio acquisition
  • Regulatory diligence on a contested transmission-only utility sale
  • Sell-side advisor to a 4.4 GW gas-and-storage IPP
What infrastructure capital is getting wrong about merchant storageBrief № 37 The honest "do not buy" memo: three case studiesWP 2025-06
06DEC

Decarbonization Roadmaps

For corporate energy buyers, state agencies and utilities pursuing economy-wide emissions targets. 24/7 carbon-free energy strategy, IRA monetization, sector-coupling analysis and net-zero implementation plans grounded in real procurement realities.8

Methodology
  • Hourly emissions accounting & matched-procurement modeling
  • IRA tax-credit monetization & transferability structuring
  • Sector-coupling roadmaps (buildings, transport, industrial heat)
  • Scope-2 and Scope-3 net-zero policy review & assurance support
Sample engagements
  • 24/7 CFE procurement strategy for two Fortune-50 hyperscalers
  • State-level economy-wide decarbonization plan, Northeast
  • Industrial heat-electrification roadmap for an F-500 chemicals firm
The 24/7 CFE procurement gap: a Fortune-100 buyer's viewBrief № 41 IRA monetization: where the easy money already movedWP 2025-12
§. Engagement Model

How a Northgate engagement runs.

Five phases, partner-led, with a defined hand-off at each transition. Average engagement length is six to fourteen months.

01. SCOPE
Framing memo

A one-page distillation of the question, the decision-maker, and the constraints. Delivered before the engagement letter.

02. RECORD
Record build

Discovery review, model audit, stakeholder interviews. We read the underlying filings before we touch a spreadsheet.

03. ANALYZE
Analysis & modeling

Capacity expansion, market modeling, financial modeling. Internal red-team review on every deliverable.

04. FILE
Filing or board memo

Pre-filed testimony, white paper, settlement portfolio, or board-of-directors memo, depending on the decision venue.

05. DEFEND
Defense & close

Deposition, hearing, stakeholder workshop or board presentation. And a published lessons-learned memo on close.

§. Selected Active Dockets

On the record.

A non-exhaustive sample of the public-record proceedings in which Northgate is currently appearing as counsel, expert witness or technical advisor.

ER24-1108-000
PJM Capacity Performance reforms (FERC)Phase II compliance · Markets practice
R.13-12-010
CPUC IDER & load-modifier frameworkReopening following AB 205 · DSM practice
RM21-17-000
FERC Order 2222 compliance reviewMulti-ISO docket · Markets practice
RM21-17-002
Order 1920 transmission planning complianceRegional planning · Regulatory practice
E-100, Sub 195
NCUC integrated resource planning2024 plan · IRP practice
22-00058-UT
NMPRC general rate case2024 test year · Regulatory practice
A.22-05-XXX
CPUC flexible-demand tariff applicationDSM practice · expert testimony
ER22-2967-000
NYISO carbon pricing technical recordMarkets practice · technical conference
Footnotes
  1. For a longer treatment of the interaction between dispatchable clean firm capacity and 24/7 procurement, see Hsieh-Whitmore & Park-Hofstetter, Northgate Working Paper 2024-09.
  2. Methodology pages for the IRP, market-design and decarbonization practices are available under NDA on request. The DSM and regulatory practices publish methodology in the public domain through the firm's Brief series.
  3. "Contested record" used here in its FERC-procedural sense. A docket in which evidentiary hearings have been ordered and intervenor testimony is on file. Excludes uncontested settlement-only proceedings.
  4. Cf. CPUC Decision 14-12-035, the 1.0 generation of the IDER framework, and the 2023 amendments under R.22-07-005.
  5. The firm files in the seven U.S. ISO/RTOs (PJM, MISO, SPP, NYISO, ISO-NE, ERCOT, CAISO) and in the bilateral Western Resource Adequacy Program.
  6. Mendoza, R.T. (2009–2014), Administrative Law Judge, California Public Utilities Commission. The firm's conflicts policy excludes engagements arising from matters before the CPUC during his ALJ tenure.
  7. The firm does not accept contingent or success-fee compensation in M&A engagements. We bill on an hourly or fixed-fee basis exclusively.
  8. "Decarbonization Roadmaps" was constituted as a formal practice in 2019, though related work dates to the firm's 2011 engagement with the California Air Resources Board on AB 32 cap-and-trade design.
Engage

The right practice,
or the right combination.

Tell us the decision you face and the venue it will be made in. We will return a one-page framing memo with the practice lead, the rough scope, and the case for or against an engagement.

Request a conversation → Meet the people
Practice leads
IRP. Hsieh-Whitmore
Reg.. Mendoza
Markets. Okafor
M&A. Kowalski
Inquiries
counsel@northgate-ea.com

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