
About John
For virtually his entire legal career, John Klauberg has represented companies involved in all types of transactional matters in the electric power and gas sectors. For more than 30 years, John has assisted clients in mergers and acquisitions of regulated utilities; acquisitions and dispositions of power generation facilities and similar “utility-type” properties as well as wholesale and retail electric and gas contract portfolios; and various types of joint venture arrangements in the energy space, including those involving both generation and electric transmission facilities.
John, co-chair of the firm's power projects practice group, has industry transactional experience involving both regulated utilities and unregulated companies, including power trading companies (on both the wholesale and retail level), and has been actively engaged in transactions involving the purchase and sale of energy assets and contract portfolios arising out of some of the largest bankruptcies and restructurings in the independent power sector, including Enron and many others. John also represents numerous parties in renewable and alternative energy transactions, including wind, nuclear and solar, including acquisitions and divestitures and structured transactions, often involving long-term off-take arrangements with utilities or other traditional off-takers or with corporate purchasers.
John has received the highest rankings from Chambers & Partners’ Chambers USA (Band 1) for Energy: Electricity (Transactional) for energy transactional work for several years (2010-2018). He was selected as a 2016 Law360 MVP for transactional work in the electric power area, one of only five attorneys nationwide to be designated. He often serves as speaker at the annual SNL/Platts Utility Mergers & Acquisitions Symposium, as well as other energy industry conferences and seminars.
Experience
Recent Notable Matters
Great Plains Energy Incorporated — revised stock-for-stock merger of equals transaction with Westar Energy, Inc., creating a company with a combined equity value of approximately $14 billion, and with nearly 13,000 MW of generation capacity and more than 51,000 miles of distribution lines
Talen Energy Corporation — $1.175 billion acquisition of MACH Gen, LLC, the holding company of three natural gas-fired power plants located in New York, Massachusetts and Arizona with a total capacity of over 2,500 MW
Duke Energy Corporation — $2.8 billion sale of its Midwest merchant generation business to a subsidiary of Dynegy Inc., which includes ownership interests in 11 power plants with a total capacity of approximately 6,100 MW, as well as Duke’s competitive retail electric and gas business; Platts Global Energy Awards, 2015 Strategic Deal of the Year
Integrys Energy Group, Inc. — $298 million sale of Upper Peninsula Power Company, a regulated electric utility in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Partners LP
Integrys Energy Group, Inc. — sale of its competitive retail electric and natural gas business, Integrys Energy Services, Inc., to Exelon Generation Company, LLC
Integrys Energy Group, Inc. — sale of a portfolio of over 50 distributed solar projects to TerraForm Power, LLC
Duke Energy International — $415 million acquisition of CGED Group's Iberoamericana de Energía Ibener S.A. subsidiary in Chile, including two hydroelectric generating assets with a combined 140 megawatts of installed capacity
Great Plains Energy Inc. — formation of Transource Energy LLC, a joint venture with AEP Transmission Holding Company LLC focused on developing competitive transmission projects in the United States, and the contribution of rights to two regional transmission projects to the venture
Puget Sound Energy, Inc. — joint development agreement with RES Americas to jointly develop wind power projects in Washington state
Direct Energy Services, LLC — $300 million acquisition of Strategic Energy LLC from Great Plains Energy Inc.
Puget Sound Energy, Inc. — acquisition, development and construction of over 700 MW of wind generating facilities
Puget Sound Energy Inc. — acquisition of the Ferndale Cogeneration Station, an approximately 270 MW dual-fired combined-cycle cogeneration facility located in Whatcom County, Washington, from Tenaska Washington Partners LP
Puget Sound Energy Inc. — $120 million acquisition of the 275 MW Goldendale Energy Center from Calpine Corporation through Calpine
Basalt Infrastructure Partners — joint venture with Enchanted Rock Ltd. for the development of over 100 MWs of MicroGrid projects in Texas