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ABOUT

Alex Barnes & Associates was founded in 2016. It has access to a network of energy regulatory specialists with many decades of experience between them.

Recent work includes (since 2019):

  • Analysis and support on UK hydrogen market policy and development for an international energy market services provider.
  • Analysis and advice on UK natural gas network regulatory issues for an international oil and gas company.
  • Regulatory monitoring and analysis of the UK biomethane market for an international oil and gas company.
  • Support for European trade association on reform of the current EU gas market regulation.
  • Analysis for strategy consultancy on EU and UK gas market regulation and decarbonisation of gas grids. 
  • Support for economic consultancy on impact of EU decarbonisation policies on the aviation industry. 
  • Support for economic consultancy on design of emissions trading schemes. 
  • Analysis of Guarantees of Origin and their role in promoting decarbonisation
  • Analysis of EU hydrogen policy including the Fit for 55 Package and the Hydrogen and Gas Decarbonisation Package.
  • Assessment of UK policy on Carbon Capture and Storage, Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage and Hydrogen
  • Assessment of future regulation of methane emissions
  • Preparation of a response to the UK Government Consultation on Low Carbon Hydrogen Business Models
  • EU energy market analysis for a major European gas infrastructure project
  • Advice on market entry to the future European hydrogen market
  • Review of decarbonisation policies for a small island economy 
  • Review of Ofgem’s Price Control proposals for National Grid
Alex

Alex Barnes, Director.

Alex Barnes is an independent consultant specialising in energy market design and regulation. He has nearly thirty years’ experience in the oil and gas sector, most of it spent in the liberalisation of gas and electricity markets. He has worked for a range of companies including Total, BG Group and Gazprom, helping them manage the impacts of energy liberalisation.

In the 1990s he represented Total Gas Marketing in network code discussions as the British gas market opened up to competition. At BG Group he helped secure an exemption from regulation for the Dragon LNG terminal. He also advised on access to upstream pipeline networks and supported the company’s expansion of its gas marketing activities into Europe as markets began to liberalise in the 2000s. He established the Regulatory Affairs function for Gazprom Marketing & Trading in 2009, supporting its rapid expansion in gas and power trading in Europe. He has also supported Gazprom on gas market competition issues and the Nord Stream 2 project.

He has helped draft gas market rules as an industry representative on expert panels for the European Network of Transmission Operators for gas (ENTSOG) and the European energy market regulator ACER, and represented the European Federation of Energy Traders at the Madrid Forum organised by the EU Commission. In the UK he has served as an elected industry representative on the Network Code Modification Panel. He is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars, also serving on the Advisory Boards for the European Gas Conference and the European Annual Gas Conference. Recently he became a Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, writing on the subject of decarbonisation of gas networks, and hydrogen. He is also an Advisor to the Global Gas Centre. He has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, and an MBA from Henley Management College.