Adriaan van der Merwe

Special Counsel

Adriaan is a Special Counsel in Hamilton Locke’s New Energy team, where he provides strategic and practical advice to clients along the entire lifecycle of new energy projects. This sees him advising on project development, M&A, construction, power purchase, contract management and disputes.

He has extensive experience advising clients (including the public sector, developers, sponsors, head contractors and subcontractors) on renewable (solar PV, CSP, hydrogen, biomass, landfill and hydro) and conventional (gas, coal and nuclear) energy generation technologies, battery storage, as well as transmission and distribution related assignments.

He has worked on projects across Australia, Africa, and the Indian Ocean region, delivering industry leading solutions for complex projects. He is passionate about the transition to a green economy and supporting the development of sustainable and resilient energy systems.

Adriaan regularly publishes on new energy, presents at industry conferences and lectures at universities across Australia and Africa. He has a particular interest in distributed energy resources (DER), agrivoltaics and African energy generation projects, having worked extensively in these areas.

Prior to joining Hamilton Locke, Adriaan worked at MinterEllison in Australia and DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc in South Africa.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

New Energy, Construction, Infrastructure, Project Development, Litigation and Dispute Resolution

QUALIFICATIONS

Master of Laws, University of Stellenbosch
Bachelor of Commerce (Hons), Economics, University of Stellenbosch
Bachelor of Laws, University of the Free State
Bachelor of Commerce (Law), University of the Free State

SELECTED REPRESENTATIONS

Acted for Energy Vault on the deployment of two battery energy storage systems (BESS) at ACEN Australia’s 720MW New England solar and battery project. The BESS project, located in the New England region of NSW, has a capacity of 200MW/400MWh
Acted for European Energy on the 56MW Mokoan Solar Farm, located in Winton, in the Hume region of Victoria. A novel feature of the project is the implementation by European Energy of an in-house EPC delivery model (including split contracting), whereby the company contracts directly with third party engineers, designers, key equipment suppliers and installers via its EPC contractor entity.
Acted for multiple proponents of VRET projects (Victorian Renewable Energy Target 2).
Advising Wärtsila Australia on the drafting and negotiation of EPC and O&M Agreements for various battery storage projects.
Advising Foresight Group on various project documents including EPC, O&M, supply and subcontracts and in respect of various disputes (including under the security of payment legislation) for the Oakey 1 and Oakey 2 solar projects.
Advising UGL on the drafting of the EPC contract for Transgrid’s BESS in Western Sydney with Telsla as the EPC contractor and UGL as D&C Contractor.
Advising Veolia on various disputes under a Waste to Energy EPC for the Kwinana Waste to Energy Facility.
Advising Eskom on its Renewable Energy IPP Procurement Programme. According to the WWF, this programme is hailed as a flagship public-private partnership model for South Africa and the rest of Africa. It has been designed to contribute towards socio-economic and environmentally sustainable growth, and to start and stimulate the renewable energy industry in South Africa. The programme encompass the following technologies: onshore wind, concentrated solar power, solar photovoltaic, biomass, biogas, landfill gas and small hydro. In addition to the above this mandate also includes contract and claims management for Eskom for 94 renewable energy projects (in various stages of procurement) under the programme, as well as the resolution of disputes and all ancillary processes contemplated under the project documents. Advice includes the legal review and signoff on all new Power Purchase Agreements entered into by Eskom under the programme, assistance on all regulatory matters, and providing legal opinions on an array of issues encountered. As new projects are signed on this mandate increases and will eventually comprise 13,000 MW. To indicate the magnitude of this programme – the first 64 projects attracted private sector investment of US$ 14 billion.
Advising South African Power Pool (SAPP) in relation to the ANNA Transmission Interconnector project, which is expected to link the Namibian and Angolan electricity networks in the north western part of Namibia and the southern part of Angola. This mandate includes feasibility studies and the design of a procurement programme.
Acting for South African Power Pool (SAPP) on the feasibility study regarding the interconnection of the Southern and the Eastern African Power Pools. This instruction comprises an analysis of the legal and regulatory frameworks that can enable bilateral and competitive trading between the power pools.
Advising Ethiopia Electric Power (EEP) in relation to the design of the procurement program and drafting of the suite of agreements (RFP, PPA, IA and Connection Agreement) for projects including, Metehara 100MW Solar PV procurement programme and Chemoga Yeda I and II 280 MW Hydro procurement programme. This mandate also included assistance with the actual procurement process, which included addressing clarification questions received from bidders, and training EEPs employees with regard to the necessitated procurement process.
Assisting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (which includes all 14 states in West Africa) in standardising all of their bilateral energy trade agreements, as well as their network access agreements.
Advising NSW Department of Planning and Environment on various aspects of the National Energy Law (NSW), Electricity Supply Act (NSW), Energy Retail Law (NSW), National Energy Rules, the NSW Electricity Strategy and various other energy related matters.
Advising Jemena on various construction agreements related to the electricity distribution network in Victoria, gas distribution network across Australia and battery energy storage projects.