Hunton Andrews Kurth Advises DTE Electric Company on $235 Million Senior Secured Securitization Bonds

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP acted as counsel to DTE Electric Company (“DTE”), and DTE Electric Securitization Funding I LLC (the “Issuer”) on a SEC-registered offering totaling $235,800,000 aggregate principal amount of Senior Secured Securitization Bonds, Series 2022A (the “Bonds”) by the Issuer, a special purpose entity, wholly-owned by DTE, as sponsor, depositor and servicer. The Bonds were sold pursuant to a financing order issued by the Michigan Public Service Commission. The Bond proceeds were used by the Issuer to purchase securitization property from DTE. In accordance with the financing order, DTE will use the proceeds from the sale of its securitization property to reimburse itself for previously-incurred securitization costs associated with the closure of its River Rouge generation plan and with its tree trimming surge program.  This transaction is the first dedicated utility rate securitization where two types of costs were recovered through the insurance of a single series of bonds supported by separate dedicated charges, collected from different groups of customers. This offering closed on March 17, 2022.

The Issuer is organized as a Delaware limited liability company and the sole member of the Issuer is DTE. The Issuer was formed for the purpose of purchasing, owning and administering securitization property, issuing the Bonds and performing activities incidental thereto.

The Hunton Andrews Kurth team included Michael F. Fitzpatrick, Adam O'Brian, Matt Hayes, Brendan Harney and Michelle G. Chan. Jason Harbour assisted with certain bankruptcy advice, Shawn Regan and Kate Perkins assisted with certain constitutional law matters, Bob Hahn assisted with certain UCC/security interest matters, and Cary Tolley, Anna Page and Tim Strother provided tax advice, and Leslie Okinaka provided ERISA advice.