Alexus van der Weyden

Alexus is an economist and Director of Frontier Economics.

He has 20 years of experience providing advice on regulatory, policy and commercial matters across the private and public sectors. With a focus on urban economics, water, natural resources and energy markets, his advice covers issues from the evaluation of measures to manage water security, flooding and waterway health in major metropolitan areas, to the pricing of scarce resources, and funding of critical community infrastructure.

Alexus has held senior roles within industry (at Jemena) and within the NSW Government (including at the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW (IPART), and NSW Treasury - Energy Reform Unit).

His expertise includes:

Economic regulation

Alexus provides support to regulated businesses in developing their pricing proposals and to regulators in evaluating these proposals. This includes strategic regulatory design, efficiency analysis, business cases, regulatory and price modelling, advice on incentive scheme design and application and preparation of price submission documents.

Examples include:

• Supporting water businesses to design and prepare price submissions to regulators (e.g. Sydney Desalination Plant)
• Undertaking reviews for Infrastructure Australia and Infrastructure NSW on measures to enhance economic regulation of the water sector
• Advising utilities on mechanisms to manage risk and recover the cost of major investment in infrastructure.

Integrated land use & services planning

As a regular advisor to State, local governments, and utility service providers, Alexus advises on policies and services that support the efficient use of our scarce resources and the transition to a more circular economy, that address market failures and improve outcomes for the community.

Examples of integrating land use planning and services planning include:

• Assessing the economics of waste to energy facilities to support business cases (e.g. for Jemena Gas Networks)
• Evaluating integrated strategies to manage stormwater and protect our waterways (e.g. for NSW Government)
• Undertaking strategic reviews to support land-use and water management decision making for new growth urban areas, such as Infrastructure NSW’s landmark review for Sydney’s Western Parkland City (South Creek catchment) which found that changes to the urban design and integration of service delivery including water recycling of parks and tree canopies could generate large net economic benefits.

Water security for the community

Alexus has also advised State, local governments, and utility service providers on measures to increase the efficient and effective use of available water sources, to improve water security and urban resilience. He has led projects to assess the economics of investment in large scale water desalination and wastewater recycling through to small scale water conservation measures, including how to price our scarce resources.

Examples include:

• Assessing the economics of portfolios to manage water security (e.g. as part of Hunter Water’s Lower Hunter Water Security Plan)
• Developing economic frameworks for valuing small scale water conservation and water efficiency measures

We work as one team across the world

In Asia-Pacific, we do this from offices in Australia and Singapore. We work as a single team with expertise and people brought together as required by the problem we are solving for our clients. Reach out to any of our economists and consultants to find out how we can help you.