Nick is a Director of ECA and an economist with 25 years of experience. He has a comprehensive understanding of the preconditions for establishing, reforming, regulating, and liberalising the utility and infrastructure sectors, having advised regulators, governments, utilities and international institutions in Australia, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. He has worked with regulatory bodies in Australia, the United Kingdom and worldwide advising on the formulation and implementation of allowed revenue and tariff methodologies and has assisted various regulators with price control reviews.

For example, he has supported the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator on three electricity and gas sector price control reviews, and with two appeals to the Competition and Markets Authority. He has advised the Energy Commission of Malaysia in its setting of the second electricity price control under the then recently established incentive-based regulation framework. Nick has also served as the director of ECA’s assistance to Ofgem in Great Britain in its ‘RIIO-2’ price control work and for the price control review of the five electricity distribution companies in Oman. He recently concluded a similar review for transmission and the single buyer in Oman and assisted the Greek regulator with the establishment of a new gas pricing methodology (transmission and LNG), after having similarly advised on methodologies for electricity transmission and distribution.

Earlier in his career, Nick was a member of the teams that undertook the formative work for the establishment during the 1990s and early 2000s of competitive markets, and the operation of modern regulatory principles and practices in the utility and infrastructure sectors of Victoria and New South Wales (Australia), covering the electricity, gas, water and sewerage, rail, and port sectors.

Given his varied sector and country experience, Nick has a profound understanding of the methodological and regulatory issues confronting the different sectors, and how these can be applied under diverse institutional and market contexts. His experience and knowledge cover the breadth of regulatory matters, including the review of forecasted operating and capital expenditures, the setting of the cost of capital, issues around the updating of the regulatory asset base, the treatment of non-regulated revenues, the development of performance and other incentive mechanisms, and the development of efficient tariff designs.

Nick holds an undergraduate degree (honours) in Economics and a Master of Economics, both from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.