NERA Economic Consulting

james.heidell@nera.com
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Education

CFA Charterholder
MBA in finance and accounting, University of Washington
MS in engineering economics systems (with a focus on decision analysis and energy policy), Stanford University
BSE in civil engineering, Tufts University

Experience

Mr. Heidell is a Vice President in NERA's Energy, Environment, and Network Industries Practice, based in Denver. He specializes in electricity and natural gas utilities and electric wholesale markets. Mr. Heidell provides advisory services to utilities in regulatory issues including cost allocation, rates, and resource planning. He also provides market forecasting and economic analysis to support transactions related to the purchase and sale of electric generation assets, and electric and natural gas distribution systems. Mr. Heidell has provided expert testimony in regulatory and civil proceedings related to energy policy and contract issues.

Prior to joining NERA, Mr. Heidell spent eight years as a Managing Consultant at an economic consulting firm, where he led engagements pertaining to restructuring and valuation of bankrupt merchant energy companies; advisory services and valuation of gas and power utilities, energy companies, and power plants to support M&A; strategic planning to support the growth of energy companies; and utility regulatory support related to the development of power projects and rate adjustments. Before that, he worked at Puget Sound Energy, where he served as Director of Financial Planning and Director of Federal and State Regulation.

Over the past eight years, Mr. Heidell has led numerous consulting assignments related to:

• Bankruptcy Advisory Services: Led major engagements to analyze the finances and determine the value of multibillion dollar merchant electric generation companies in bankruptcy, in particular developing projections of future income, cash flow, and debt service coverage for creditors of bankrupt companies.
• Power Plant Project Finance: Developed and presented independent valuations and market expert reports for merchant energy companies seeking debt financing/refinancing. Provided support necessary for credit committee approval and bond ratings for billions of dollars in financing and thousands of megawatts for US generation plants.
• M&A Advisor: Provided valuation advice for acquisition of electric generation portfolios, single power plants, electric utilities, and gas distribution companies. Work also included review of wholesale and retail regulatory pricing mechanisms and analysis of associated risk.
• Wholesale Electric Market Modeling: Directed wholesale energy market forecasts for most of the NERC regions and analysis of northeast capacity markets to support: strategic investments by utilities and major energy companies, development of utility risk management strategies, and corporate strategies for generation asset acquisition and disposition.
• Utility Regulatory Support: Prepared expert testimony in regulatory hearings related to resource acquisition, QF issues, rate impacts, marginal and embedded cost of service, and rate design. Develop marginal and embedded cost studies for regulated utilities.
• Civil Litigation Testimony & Support: Prepared testimony and expert witness testimony, along with expert witness support, in power contract litigation, property tax cases, power plant development agreements, and a software development agreement.

Mr. Heidell holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He also holds an MBA in finance and accounting from the University of Washington, an MS in engineering economics systems with a focus on decision analysis and energy policy from Stanford University, and a BSE in civil engineering from Tufts University.