People

Stephen is an energy economist that is passionate about delivering an affordable and secure zero emissions energy future. He brings seven years of experience in CEPA’s energy practice helping policy makers and industry navigate and shape the energy transition.

He brings recent experience supporting the UK Government and National Grid on a range of market reform options for GB – including delivering quantitative assessments of the introduction of new locational price signals and reforms to the contract for difference mechanism (CfD) support mechanism. He is currently supporting a CBA of the P462 modification which DESNZ has highlighted as a potential cornerstone of the new Reformed National Pricing market.

Stephen is an expert wholesale energy market modeller, and he has led numerous modelling projects using CEPA’s pan-European electricity market model and global gas market model. This track record covers policy appraisals, infrastructure CBAs, and revenue forecasting exercises for a range of public and private clients.

Stephen also brings leading knowledge of the unique challenges and opportunities facing the energy system in Ireland and Northern Ireland. He has extensive experience providing expert policy and commercial advice to Governments (DCEE & DfE), regulatory authorities (CRU & UR), and numerous private clients.

His wider areas of interest include:

• Cross border arrangements. Stephen is leading CEPA’s support to the CRU focusing on Ireland’s re-integration with the European Internal Energy Market (IEM). He has also previously supported an assessment of post-Brexit UK-EU energy trading arrangements (MRLVC) and has led numerous cross-border modelling projects.
• Security of Supply. Stephen managed a number of major security of energy supply studies in Ireland. He has also led the review of a National Resource Adequacy Assessment (NRAA) and has extensive experience in capacity mechanism design and implementation.
• Network regulation. Stephen is supporting the CRU on the regulation of Ireland’s new offshore transmission network. He has previously supported the design of cross-border network regulation (the “cap and floor” regime) and has an expert understanding of how European unbundling rules apply to new transmission infrastructure. He has previously led a review of how independent technical advisors (ITAs) can support network delivery and has supported numerous CEPA projects covering network price controls in Ireland and GB.

Prior to joining CEPA, Stephen worked as a research assistant at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin, Ireland. He holds a MSc in Economics from the Barcelona School of Economics and a BA in Economics and History from Trinity College Dublin.