Omer KESIKLI, the founding partner of Kesikli Law Firm, spoke at International Conference on Energy and Management (ICEM 2014).

International Conference on Energy and Management was held at the main (Santral) campus of Istanbul Bilgi University which is located at the bank of the ancient golden horn, Istanbul. The aim of the event was to gather researchers working in the field of energy and the public or private companies performing on the energy sector to share their knowledge on the recent trends, scientific developments, innovations and the energy management methods.

The topics covered at the Conference included energy sources and technologies, energy management, energy markets, energy and environment, energy policies and regulations, finance of energy, power plant construction contracts (EPC Contracts), energy procurement, new regulations and demands in energy market and energy infrastructures.

This event also marked the 1st centennial of the activation of the first power generation plant of Istanbul which is located on the campus and serves today as the Energy Museum.

The key notes from the speech of Omer KESIKLI are as follows:

• Title of the speech was “Limitation of Liability Provisions under EPC Contracts for Power Plant Construction Projects from the Perspective of Turkish Law”
• Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts are the most common form of contracts used by the private sector on large scale and complex power plant construction projects
• EPC Contracts are Risk Allocation Contracts, so the risks should be carefully allocated within a contract.
• Investing in energy can be very profitable. But energy investments involve a considerable amount of risk to investors, contractors, suppliers and engineers. One of the key elements to successfully mitigating risks might be Limitation of Liability Clauses.
• The main risks involved: Delay risks, performance risks (performance deficiencies), defective work risks.
• A considerable amount of time is spent in negotiating the related limitation of liability provisions under EPC Contracts.
• However are those provisions valid under Turkish Law, and if yes to what extent?