Carrie Collier-Brown

Carrie Collier-Brown is a regulatory and administrative law attorney with a focus on Texas energy markets, energy regulations and administrative litigation. With her deep understanding of the Texas wholesale and retail electric markets and utility regulatory environment at the Texas PUC and ERCOT, Carrie provides clients with practical solutions in agency proceedings, corporate transactions and civil litigation.

In her Texas PUC practice, Carrie represents electric utilities, electric cooperatives, water utilities, generators, retail electric providers and other clients in a broad range of regulatory and administrative litigation matters, including rate applications, mergers and acquisitions, Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) proceedings, generator interconnections, certification and registration, regulatory compliance and enforcement and policy rulemakings.

On the federal energy level, Carrie has advised electric utilities and generation companies on compliance with Qualifying Facility (QF) certification, NERC reliability standards, competition-related issues in RTO and ISO markets and Open Access Transmission Tariffs compliance matters at FERC.

Before practicing law, she worked for the Texas Legislature and was on staff with the Texas PUC where she led numerous rulemakings to implement the competitive retail electric market under Senate Bill 7, the 1999 legislation introducing retail customer choice in Texas.

Carrie's experience includes the representation of:

Public Utility Commission of Texas

• General Counsel for trade association of competitive retail electric providers in utility rate cases, utility mergers, policy rulemakings and contested proceedings at the Texas PUC
• Regulatory counsel for buyers and sellers of electric generating facilities in ERCOT
• Non-ERCOT electric utility in base rate cases, Energy Efficiency Cost Recovery Factor (EECRF) cases, Transmission Cost Recovery Factor (TCRF) cases and fuel reconciliation proceedings
• Electric transmission utility in base rate case and CCN transfer proceedings
• Fiber infrastructure company in certification for a Service Provider Certificate of Operating Authority
• Water and waste water utility in rate case; Sale, Transfer, Merger applications; and advised company on rulemaking proceedings at the PUC
• Electric utility's largest industrial customer in base rate case, TCRF and DCRF cases
• The state's third-largest REP in a successful challenge to joint marketing between transmission and distribution utility and its affiliated competitive REP
• The state's second-largest electric utility in appeals of municipal ordinances
• Potential equity investors in proceeding to acquire the state's largest electric utility out of bankruptcy
• Pipelines, landowners and developers in electric utility CCN proceedings
• Electric utilities, electric cooperatives, REPs and generators in enforcement proceedings
• Electric utility in rulemaking project to revise the standard Tariff for Retail Delivery Service
• Renewable energy generators on transmission line interconnections

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

• Electric utility in dispute regarding qualifying facilities
• Investor-owned electric utility on compliance with FERC Order Nos. 888 and 890, including preparation and filing of compliance filings and revisions to Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT)
• A Midwest transmission owner on FERC compliance issues, focusing on transmission service and related FERC-jurisdictional agreements
• Investor-owned utility on compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standards
• Two investor-owned utilities on transfer of control of FCC wireless licenses as part of merger application to FERC

Texas District Court and Third Court of Appeals

• Landowner in an appeal of PUC's order on transmission line routing
• Electric utility in proceedings regarding qualifying facilities dispute
• The state's third-largest REP in appeal of PUCT decision on joint marketing between transmission and distribution utility and its affiliated REP