Economic Consultants, Gas, Water, Electricity, Infrastructure, Transport

IPA’s Regulatory Support Service has a proven track record in helping utilities to meet the challenges of competition and the EU internal energy market framework, to effectively anticipate, manage and implement the associated regulatory changes and to position themselves to take advantage of new market driven developments.

IPA’s team of experienced regulatory professionals can help with the full range of your regulatory support requirements:

Regulatory Impact Assessment We provide expertise and resource to assess the implications of major regulatory developments, including price control proposals, market restructuring and competition rulings.
Positioning and Influencing We provide essential experience to help companies develop and assess alternative proposals and benchmark their performance. We can advise on strategies for successfully influencing regulators, Governments and competition authorities in order to achieve desired outcomes.
Mergers and Acquisitions One of the keys to successful merger and acquisition in the utility sector is understanding the governing regulatory, market and competition frameworks. We can assist in determining the implications for the value of a proposed investment and with necessary notifications and clearances, including negotiation of appropriate undertakings and assurances, new licence applications and modifications and other regulatory controls. IPA’s regulatory team has wide ranging international experience in dealing with regulators, competition authorities and Governments.
Compliance and Assurance Designed to provide comfort to Boards and senior management teams, we offer an independent review service to assist with implementation of new reporting systems and to assess compliance with the increasingly complex regulatory framework. This includes compliance auditing.
Training We offer a range of off-the-shelf or tailored training packages to share experience, transfer know-how and build regulatory capacity with our clients. IPA’s existing regulatory training courses range from 1-day sessions dedicated to specific regulatory issues to our 2-week course, An Introduction to Regulation. These will shortly be available as low cost packages via the internet. Visit IPA training page.

IPA’s Regulation Team brings together former utility company regulation managers and utility sector regulators. Our competitive advantage is our first-hand, practical experience of leading and managing major regulatory change within the electricity and gas industries and dealing with the regulatory implications of merger, acquisition and affiliation activities. Between us, the members of our team have played influential roles in some of the most challenging developments in European regulatory practice, including:

UK
Training in electricity trading arrangements, market structure and operation for the Competition Commission

UK
Regulatory risk assessment for potentially the largest off-shore wind farm in Europe

Germany, Norway, France
Assessment of the impacts of gas and electricity company mergers and acquisitions – corporate positioning and influencing regulatory, government and competition authority decisions

Romania
Development of competitive gas market system and balancing arrangements for Transgaz

Poland
Regulatory risk assessment for a Poland/Lithuania electricity interconnector

Serbia
Establishment of the energy regulator, development of regulatory framework and extensive capacity building

Channel Islands
Regulatory strategy, tariff analysis and business modelling for utility during the introduction of economic regulation

Europe
Development of the regulatory framework for a trans-national gas pipeline into Europe from the middle east

Montenegro
Advice and capacity building on unbundling and business separation in the electricity sector

Ian Benfield
Has over 18 years experience as a regulator, senior utility company manager and consultant. He worked for 5 years at Ofgas (then the UK gas regulator) followed by 9 years at TXU Europe/Eastern Electricity where he headed the European regulation team, leading discussions with the Norwegian, German, Italian, Dutch and Finnish regulatory, governmental and competition authorities, as well as the EC. He was Vice President of Geode, the European distribution companies’ alliance. Ian now leads the development of IPA’s training services and work on the regulation of gas markets. Ian had a BA (Hons) from the University of London, Kings College.

Rosalind Carey
Was formerly Corporate Regulation Manager with the UK’s Scottish and Southern Energy during a period of intense regulatory development, including full market opening, business separation, development of electricity balancing market, network and retail price control reviews. She achieved several regulatory clearances for competitive and merger activities. Rosalind has subsequently developed diverse international experience with IPA, from the establishment of regulatory frameworks to risk assessment for major gas and electricity infrastructure investments. She has a BA and Masters in Business Administration from Strathclyde University.

Brian Wharmby
Has over 35 years experience in the energy industry. With impeccable educational qualifications in engineering, Brian has held senior roles in the private and public sector including in engineering consultancy and manufacturing. He was a founder member of the management team at the UK energy regulator Ofgem and was Technical Director of Ofgem for eleven years. Since 2001, Brian has advised governments, regulators and private clients around the world on all aspects of restructuring and regulation.

Jennifer Wattie
Has worked in the electricity industry for 10 years, starting her career as an electricity trader. She has traded in both the mandatory half hourly pool in New Zealand, and the bilateral markets of Germany and Central Europe. Jennifer then moved into regulatory and strategic roles in both a generator/ retailer and the regulated transmission company in New Zealand. She is now part of IPA’s regulatory team of consultants. She has a BCom with first class honours in Economics and a BA in Political Science from Auckland University in New Zealand.

Hydreace Ali
Has a BA (Hons) in Economics from Jesus College, Cambridge and an MSc from SOAS (University of London). He has 7 years experience, including periods with a major UK energy company where he developed his experience of regulatory affairs, prior to joining IPA’s regulatory team..

Amr Ibrahim
Has over 17 years as an applied economist specialising in the regulation and operation of the electricity, gas, and water markets. His experience includes economic and regulatory due diligence, and customer representation of electricity and gas physical assets and trading investments in North America, Central America/Caribbean, South America, North Africa, India and the Middle East. He worked for several years with the New England ISO, and as a rate designer and cost of service specialist at the retail level for utilities in Canada. Amr has a PhD in Economics from Sussex University.

Jan Devito
A leading authority on the UK's electricity market and the development of the competitive market arrangements. In her career, spanning nearly 30 years in the sector, she has been involved in virtually every major development of the electricity market gaining a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory framework and the key strategic/business drivers for different industry players. Most recently, Jan has expanded her portfolio of interests to encompass the development of policy initiatives to support the development of the microgeneration sector (heat and electricity) within the UK.