Regulation and Standards for a Resilient European Energy System

Catharina Sikow-Magny joined the European Commission in 1997 and is currently the Director responsible for Green Transition and Energy System Integration in the Directorate General for Energy. Before that, she was the Head of Unit in charge of Consumers, Local Initiatives, Just Transition. Before that she was the Head of Unit responsible for Networks and Regional Initiatives. She has as well worked on international transport, trans-European network policy and financing, internalisation of external costs, and strategic policy research.

Before joining the Commission, Catharina was a team leader and chief economist in the private sector in Finland. She has also worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She holds a Master of Economics degree from the Aalto University, Finland.

Catherine Banet (PhD) is Professor of Law at the University of Oslo, and Head of the Department for Energy and Resources Law, Norway. Her legal research activities focus on energy market design, energy transport infrastructures regulation, support schemes and financing models, focusing on renewable energy and notably offshore wind, climate change mitigation measures such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), and hydrogen regulation.

Prof. Banet has a background from the private law practice (Norway, France), the European Commission (DG ENV), U.S. diplomatic mission and academia. She is a member of the Academic Advisory Group of the Section on Energy, Environment and Infrastructure Law of the IBA, and Chair of the Board of the Norwegian Energy Law Association.

Friðrik Már Baldursson is a CERRE Research Fellow and Professor of Economics at the Reykjavik University Business School where he formerly served as the Dean.

He has extensive experience of economic analysis from a decade of service as Head of Economic Research and Managing Director at the National Economic Institute of Iceland as well as from various consultancy projects.

He has been active in public service in various roles, including the Supervisory Board of the Central Bank of Iceland. In October 2008, he led negotiations with the IMF on Iceland’s behalf.

Prof. Baldursson holds a PhD in Applied Statistics and Probability from Columbia University as well as an MSc in Economics.

Dr. Kong Chyong is an applied energy economist and policy analyst with a strong background and more than fifteen years of experience in applications of economics and operational research methods to energy and climate policy questions. Kong’s research interests include economics and geopolitics of Russian natural gas exports, with a focus on Russo-Ukrainian bilateral relations and impacts on Europe and global gas markets. He also works on large-scale modelling of power markets, with a focus on low-carbon generation sources and integration of renewables.

Currently, Kong is a Senior Research Fellow in Energy System Economics and Modelling at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Before this, he was Senior Research Scholar with the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Prior to joining Columbia University, Kong was a research associate with the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) based at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Kong holds a PhD in Energy Economics and Policy (2011) and an MPhil in Technology Policy (2007) from the University of Cambridge. His PhD topic concerned Russia’s strategic natural gas export policy and Gazprom’s pipeline investment strategy.

Prior to his studies at Cambridge University, Kong was a researcher at the at the National Academy of Sciences in Ukraine.

Niall McDonald has been in his current post of Chief Engineer with Ofgem since January 2022.  In this and his previous role as Principal Engineer he is/was focused on Engineering Support for all activities associated with the price controls, present and future. He also leads the engineering team providing engineering advice and technical support across all of Ofgem’s activities including Electricity, Gas, Hydrogen, Heat Networks, Carbon Capture and Nuclear.

With more than 15 years spent working in the energy sector, Francesco Marzullo is currently responsible of the integrated grid planning. He coordinates the elaboration process of the “National Grid Development Plan” and defining the methodology to increase the Resilience of the electrical system. Experienced in team coordination having held various positions of responsibility in core business departments. Francesco Marzullo is also involved in a several international working group dealing with the most important topics of interest for the sector.

Riccardo Vailati is currently leading the quality and innovation of electricity infrastructures team at the Italian regulatory authority (ARERA). The main activities are supervising electricity network investment planning and defining performance-based regulation. He has a 15-year experience in regulation of energy infrastructures, both at ARERA and at the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). In 2001-2008 he was a power system consultant and researcher. He serves as co-convener of the ACER Electricity Infrastructure Task Force and as chair of the Electricity Infrastructure Workstream at the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER).