Andrea I. Sarmentero Garzón

Chair, Energy

Andrea I. Sarmentero Garzón represents clients in transactional, regulatory, and compliance matters in the electric and natural gas industries.

Biography

Andrea I. Sarmentero Garzón chairs the firm’s Energy Practice Group and is resident in its Washington, D.C. office. Ms. Sarmentero represents clients in transactional, regulatory, and compliance matters in the electric and natural gas industries. She advocates for her clients in litigation and settlement proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and in the federal courts of appeals. Ms. Sarmentero’s regulatory practice includes advising clients on issues involving utility and pipeline revenue requirements, electric transmission rates and incentives, electric transmission planning and cost allocation, pipeline transportation rates, pipeline certificate proceedings, participation in regional energy and capacity markets, FERC’s jurisdictional boundaries, grid resilience and reactive power revenue requirements. Ms. Sarmentero is experienced in drafting and negotiating agreements for energy transactions, including agreements addressing ownership and operation of transmission and generation facilities, capital investments, power purchases, engineering procurement and construction, dynamic transfers of electricity, interconnections, and water and power supply. She advises clients on matters concerning compliance with FERC’s pro-forma open access transmission tariff, FERC regulations, policies and standards, NERC electric reliability standards, and PHMSA safety regulations for natural gas pipelines.

Admissions

Admitted to Practice

  • New York
  • Spain-Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Madrid

Court Admission

  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

Representative Experience

Ms. Sarmentero has represented clients on various rate proceedings initiated pursuant to Section 4 and Section 5 of the Natural Gas Act. She successfully represented a client in litigation to reduce the Return on Equity of transmission utilities in the MISO region resulting in multi-million dollar reductions in wholesale electric rates. Ms. Sarmentero also negotiated and prepared documentation to transfer operational control of transmission facilities to the CAISO and to PJM Interconnection.

Prior to joining Jennings Strouss, Ms. Sarmentero worked at the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ Counsel Office where she gained a good understanding of public utilities’ businesses and regulatory compliance obligations at the state and federal levels. While at the New Jersey Board, Ms. Sarmentero was heavily involved in regulatory activities at NARUC and OPSI. As part of her work with NARUC International, she went to Kosovo to help energy regulators resolve electric market design issues while ensuring compliance with EU legislation. Ms. Sarmentero also worked with the World Bank in an electricity restructuring research project seeking to understand regulatory investment risks in Eastern Europe. Ms. Sarmentero has extensive energy regulatory and transactional experience in Europe where she worked at the Council of European Energy Regulators, COGEN Europe and at the Council of the European Union on matters concerning approval and implementation of EU energy legislation, including the Third Energy Package. Ms. Sarmentero also represented utility clients on energy regulatory and transactional matters in the Madrid office of a global law firm.

Media and Presentations

Articles

Blogs

Interviews

Videos

Presentations

  • “Rate Design & Support Mechanisms For Distributed Solar Energy,” Presenter, Arizona Mexico Commission (June 27, 2019)
  • “Subsidizing New and Existing Generation: Needed Investment from Consumers? Or Consumers’ Exploitation?” Presenter, APPA Legal Seminar (2016)
  • “The Latest Threat to Capacity Markets: Customers!” Presenter, APPA Legal Seminar (2013)

Memberships

New York State Bar Association

American Bar Association

  • Member, Environment, Energy and Resources Section
  • Member, Antitrust Section

Energy Bar Association

  • Board of Directors, Northeast Chapter

Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Madrid

Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia

Women’s Energy Network

Honors and Awards

  • NEA-OCDE Fellowship (2005)

Foreign Languages

  • Spanish (Native)
  • French (Intermediate)