PRESIDENT

Ibon Galarraga Gallastegui

Ph.D. in Economics (Environmental Economics) from the University of Bath (UK), M.A. Economics at the University of Essex (UK) and B.A. Economics (speciality of International Economics and Development) at the University of Basque Country.

He has worked as an environmental consultant. He taught microeconomics and macroeconomics at the University of Bath and Economic Policy at the University of Deusto. He has published in a variety of academic journals, including Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Environmental and Resource Economics, Journal of Cleaner Production, Transportation Research Part D, Transport Policy, European Environment, Fiscal Studies, Papeles de Economía Española, Revista de Economía Agraria y Recursos Naturales and Ekonomiaz.

During July 2005 and May 2009, he was the Deputy Minister for the Environment of the Basque Government, Vicepresident of IHOBE and member of the board of the Ente Vasco de la Energía (EVE).

Since 2009 is research professor in BC3. He was Deputy Director from 2013 to 2015. He is a researcher affiliated in Economics for Energy.

Ibon participates assiduously in international and national research projects such as ECONADAPT (FP7), RESIN (H2020), Water 2 Adapt (IWRM-net), PREEMPT (EC DG ECHO), ENABLE (H2020), CONSEED (H2020), PAEE (Fundación Ramón Areces), COBELOC (Plan Nacional MICINN) and ERGON (Plan Nacional MICINN).

ACADEMIC VICE PRESIDENT

María Paz Espinosa

INSTITUTIONAL VICE PRESIDENT

Gonzalo Sáenz de Miera Cárdenas

Gonzalo Sáenz de Miera holds Ph.D in Applied Economics by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid graduating with honours “Cum Laude”. He has studied an MBA in International Political Economy at the University of Warwick (UK). He is Director of Energy Prospective of Iberdrola; he previously served as Director of Regulatory Prospective.

He is an expert in the energy, economy and environment fields. He teaches Energy Economics at several universities (Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Universidad Antonio de Nebrija etc.), Director of the MBA in Energy Business at Enerclub and member of the board of “Economics for Energy”. His activity is focused on energy economy, renewable energy, energy efficiency and water economy. He has published several articles in national and international media regarding these issues. He is the author of the book – Water and Economy: Towards a rational management of a basic resource – and various chapters in treatises and handbooks on: environmental taxation, regulation of renewable energies, energy efficiency, climate change and energy social aspects.

PARTICIPATION VICE PRESIDENT

Mikel González-Eguino

Mikel González-Eguino is a senior researcher at BC3 (Basque Centre for Climate Change) and associated professor at the University of the Basque Country. He has a PhD in Economics (2006, University of the Basque Country) and a degree in Engineering (2001, University of Deusto). He has been visiting scholar at Wageningen University (Netherlands) and Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico).

His main interests lie in the fields of energy and climate change economics. He is also interested in providing scientific support for decision making in the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable economy. His work has been published the leading journals in the field.

He has worked for Basque and Spanish institutions and also lead several scientific projects funded by the European Commission.

His doctoral thesis won him the Enrique Fuentes Quintana prize (FUNCAS, 2006).

TREASURER

Cristina Pizarro-Irizar

Cristina Pizarro-Irizar is currently lecturer at the University of the Basque Country and associate researcher at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (2017-). She holds a bachelor in Telecommunications engineering and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of the Basque Country. She has a Master degree in Finance (Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros) and a Master degree in Economics (University of the Basque Country).

She has also worked at Santander Bank (2008-2016), at the University of the Basque Country, as predoctoral researcher and teaching assistant (2011-2016); and at the Basque Centre for Climate Change, as postdoctoral researcher (2016-2017).

Her research focuses on the economics of renewable energy, mainly in the analysis of electricity markets and policies aimed at renewable energy support. She has published part of her research in journals specialized in energy issues, her work has been presented at national and international conferences and she has participated in research projects funded by public and private entities.

She won the Student Best Paper Award in the 8th Conference of the Spanish Association for Energy Economics in 2013.

SECRETARY

Amaia de Ayala

Amaia de Ayala holds an international Ph.D. in Environmental Economics (March 2014) with first class honours (she received the extraordinary PhD thesis award in social sciences for her thesis entitled “Economic Valuation of Landscapes Using Discrete Choice Experiments: Issues and Challenges”); a Master’s degree in Economic Analysis (2009); and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics (2008) also with first class honours (she received the extraordinary B.A. award), all from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

Amaia has worked as Post-Doctoral researcher at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) from March 2014 to December 2017 in many national and international research projects.

At present, she is Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Economics I at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), where she teaches economics.

She is also Associate Researcher at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), where she is currently participating in different H2020 projects related to energy efficiency and energy transition from the consumer behaviour perspective.

Her research field focuses on applied economics (to environment, energy and health) for policy-guidance.

MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

Pablo Arocena Garro

MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

Mª Dolores Furió

MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

Miguel Ángel Muñoz Rodríguez

Miguel Ángel Muñoz Rodríguez is a Senior Analyst at the Directorate of Energy Policies in the company Iberdrola. Until 2008 he was a Technical Advisor on energy and environment in the Prime Minister Economic Bureau of the Spanish Government.

He holds a B.Sc. (Honours) Degree in Economics, an MSc in Economic Analysis and Financial Economics from the Complutense University of Madrid and an MBA in Management of Energy Industries by UAN.

He has collaborated in institutional publications such as the Spanish Strategy for Sustainable Development and the Economic Report for the President of the Government 2007 and 2008. He has also co-authored several publications about energy security and the policy aspects of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and climate change mitigation.

MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

Arcadio Gutiérrez Zapico

MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

Pablo Dueñas Martínez

Pablo Duenas holds a Phd in Electrical Engineering from Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Currently, he is Postdoc Associate with the Massachusetss Institute of Technology (MIT) funded by the National Science Foundation.

His areas of interest include gas and electricity markets regulation, and analysis of their interdependencies to achieve the best coordination between them and improving their resilience to failures and attacks.

Since 2007, he has been involved in several consultancy projects for energy companies. Committee Member of the Young Professional and Students Chapter since its foundation and collaborator of the WPC Spanish Youth Committee and Young Energy Economists and Engineering Seminars community.

MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

Antonio Canoyra Trabado

Director of Iberian Power Market in Gas Natural Fenosa. He got an Industrial Engineering Degree from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and an Executive MBA from the Houston University. He did postgraduate courses on Power System Analysis, Energy Planning and Safety Systems for Nuclear Power Plants in the UPM and the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (UPCo). He was professor of Power System Analysis in the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M).

After getting his degree, he started his professional career in 1990, in the Network Planning Department at Union Fenosa.

In 1995 he joined the Spanish Energy Commission (CNE) and took part in the Working Groups for the development of the new electricity market.

In 1998 he joined the Bidding Department in the Spanish Power Exchange (OMEL).
One year later, he returned to Union Fenosa as responsible for Energy Trading and he reached his actual position after the merger with Gas Natural.

He is also member of the Spanish Section of the IEEE and Secretary of the Iberian Task Force of the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET).

MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

Ismael Bahillo Santoyo

Ismael Bahillo holds a B.A. in Economics from Universidad de Valladolid and a master degree in Economics and Finance at CEMFI (Bank of Spain Foundation).

Mr Bahillo started his career as an Energy Analyst at NERA’s Madrid office in July 2000. Since he joined NERA, he specialized in regulatory, financial and strategic issues concerning gas and electricity markets in Spain and in other European countries. In the gas sector, he analyzed existing and proposed gas legislation; carried out in-depth analysis of tariff systems and access regimes in various European countries; designed the regulated remuneration mechanism for gas transmission, storage, and distribution companies for a European country, including the calculation of the WACC for regulated activities; and advised on the corresponding final and access tariffs. In the electricity sector, he worked on the design of marginal cost-based electricity tariffs for the peninsular electricity system. He also advised in themes of commercial and corporate strategy, including the valuation of distribution companies and the profitability of regulated activities.

In 2011, Ismael Bahillo joined the State Secretary of Energy within Spain’s Ministry of Industry, Tourism, and Trade as Advisor, responsible for the design and coordination of the regulation in the energy markets in Spain, with a special focus on the hydrocarbons sector.

In February 2012, he joined the former Comisión Nacional de Energía, CNE (National Energy Commission) as Deputy Director for Regulation.

At the end of 2013, the merger of various Regulatory Commissions in Spain resulted in the creation of the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia, CNMC (National Markets and Competition Commission). Within this process, Ismael Bahillo was promoted to Deputy Director for Economic-Financial Regulation and Regulated Prices in the Energy Directorate at the CNMC.

DIASPORA CHAPTER

Álvaro López-Peña

International consultant on energy policy, regulation, economics and markets, with a focus on the opportunities and challenges of the energy transition. Between 2013 and 2017 he worked at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA, based in Abu Dhabi) as a policy and market expert. He worked primarily on Latin American markets, and on the macroeconomic impacts of the energy transition (in collaboration with the IEA, the OECD and the German Government during its G20 Presidency).

He holds a degree in electrical engineering, a Masters in power sector economics and regulation, and a Ph.D. in energy policy, economics, sustainability and modelling, all of them earned at ICAI-Comillas University (Madrid, Spain) after a research visit to MIT. While doing his Masters and Ph.D. at Comillas University, he worked on applied research and consulting for power utilities and energy companies on issues related to energy planning, policy and strategy, and investment analysis.

He also helped to establish the Youth Chapter of the Spanish Association for Energy Economics and was a Board member at Energia Sin Fronteras.

YOUTH CHAPTER

Marta Feria Cerrada

Marta Feria received a Bachelor of Electromechanical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Madrid, Spain).

She works at the Institute for Research and Technology in the area “Energy Systems Modeling”. Her current research focuses on the development of modelling tools to support the analysis of electricity systems expansion and operation in a context of increasing penetration of renewables and regulatory uncertainty.