Current practice
Gary has been a commercial solicitor in private practice for more than 20 years. He has been a partner at Freehills since joining Freehills in 1998 and previously was a partner at Phillips Fox, Morris Fletcher & Cross (now Minter Ellison) and Williams & Williams.Industry experience
Gary Maguire provides legal advice to the power industry and has practiced exclusively in that industry for the last 10 years advising a range of public sector and private sector clients in the power industry in Australia and Asia. He has represented clients in the power sector such as InterGen, NRG Energy, Mirant Energy, Chevron, Queensland Government Electricity Reform Unit, Queensland Electricity Commission, New South Wales Treasury, CS Energy, ETSA Corporation, PG&E Corporation, Queensland Department of Mines and Energy, Powerlink, Enertrade and Primergy Ltd.Gary has extensive experience and knowledge of the Australian electricity industry. He was an augural director for five years of National Electricity Code Administrator Limited, the company responsible for administering the national electricity market in Australia and the Code regulating the market. He was one of the inaugural members of the Code Change Panel that oversees and recommends changes to the Code.
Gary is involved with the reform and implementation of the competitive electricity market in Singapore which will commence in 2002 and is acting for an IPP developer of a greenfield 800MW cogeneration power plant in Singapore. He has also acted for bidders for power and cogeneration plants in Korea.
Major projects
Island Power, Singapore: Gary is currently acting for the developer of a merchant, project financed greenfield 800 MW gas-fired CCGT power station in Singapore. This will be the first totally private owned power plant in Singapore supplying power to the transmission grid and also the first power station developed in the deregulated competitive electricity market in Singapore.
Korean Electricity Market: Gary is a member of the Freehills team that has advised and continues to advise the Korean Government on the deregulation of the Korean power industry and the implementation of a competitive electricity market in Korea.
NSW Treasury – Market Implementation Group: Gary heads the Freehills team assisting NSW Treasury with its current phase of further reform and restructure of the NSW electricity industry and the GOE's in the industry.
NRG Flinders: Gary advised NRG on its unsuccessful bid for Optima and its successful bid for the Flinders portfolio of power stations in the recent trade leases of the South Australian power industry.
Millmerran Power Project: Gary led the Freehill's team acting for InterGen, the sponsors of a 840MW coal mine mouth power station at Millmerran, Queensland, which reached financial close in August 1999. This is the world's largest fully merchant non-recourse financed, greenfield power project. This Project was Project Finance International 1999 "Power Deal of the Year" for the Asia-Pacific region and Project Finance magazine's "Australia Project Finance Deal of the Year".
PNG-Qld Gas Pipeline Project: Gary gives strategic advice to Chevron on the electricity market in Queensland.
Callide C Power Project: Gary acted for the Reform Unit and shareholding Ministers of CS Energy Ltd in CS Energy's joint venture with Shell Coal in the development of an 840MW coal fired power station at Callide. Gary also acted for InterGen in its purchase in 2000 of a half interest in this Project from Shell Coal.
Open Megawatt Bidding Process: QTSC undertook an open competitive megawatt bidding tender process for electricity supplies to meet Queensland's additional needs from 1999-2000. Gary acted as legal adviser to the Government appointed Tender Assessment Panel which conducted the tender, evaluated bids and recommended acceptances for Cabinet. This was the first open megawatt bidding process ever undertaken in Australia and led to the development of 3 peaking power stations.
Gladstone Power Station Sale: Gary represented the Queensland Government and the Queensland Electricity Commission in the sale of the 1680MW Gladstone Power Station to a consortium of participants led by Comalco Limited. Gary was responsible for the negotiating and drafting of the special purpose legislation for the sale, the State agreement with the consortium, the coal supply agreements, the capacity purchase agreements and the interconnection and power pooling agreement. This project, which closed on 30 March 1994, was described by the electricity industry as one of the largest and most complex of its kind in the world that year. Since then Gary has had an ongoing role with the renegotiation and redocumentation of the Interconnection and Power Pooling Agreement for this station.
Osborne Cogeneration Power Station: Gary acted for ETSA in its gas sale agreement and power purchase agreement for ETSA's offtake from the 180MW cogeneration in Osborne developed by CU Power International and Boral Energy. This is the largest cogeneration plant in Australia.
Pelican Point Power Project: Gary acted for one of the shortlisted bidders in the South Australian Government's bid process for the development of a gas fired combined cycle power station (of at least 250MW capacity) at Pelican Point South Australia.
Connection and Access Agreements: Gary has acted for Powerlink Queensland, the transmission entity in Queensland, in respect of several of its major connection and access agreements with generators and large loads. Gary also acted for ETSA Generation in South Australia in respect of its head connection and access agreement and ancillary services agreement with ETSA Transmission.
