Our People

Expertise

Alex is Head of the Arthur Cox Projects and Energy Group. He has a broad based infrastructure and utilities practice, with particular expertise in the energy sector. Alex has more than fifteen years energy regulatory, transactional and major projects experience in Ireland and Australia and has been centrally involved in the liberalisation of the energy markets in both jurisdictions.  He has extensive experience acting for government, regulators, financiers, market participants and customers, both on the island of Ireland and internationally, and combines broad industry expertise with a strong background in energy regulation and reform.  Prior to joining Arthur Cox, Alex spent six years in the Projects Group of a leading Australian law firm.

Experience

Alex’s experience includes:

• Conventional Power Projects, including the 343MW CCGT Huntstown Phase I Power Project (first IPP in Ireland); the 401.5MW CCGT Huntstown Phase II Power Project; the 445MW CCGT Whitegate Power Project; the 431MW CCGT Great Island Power Project; and the 300MW Lumcloon Power Project.
• Renewable Power Projects including the €400M Dublin Waste to Energy PPP Project (FT.com Innovative lawyers commendation 2008; Finance Magazine Project Finance Deal of the Year 2008); multiple onshore wind projects in Ireland and Northern Ireland for clients including EcoWindPower and Bord Gais Eireann; multiple CHP projects and advising the State in relation to the consenting of all offshore wind projects in Ireland.
• Electrical Interconnectors, including advising Moyle Interconnector Limited on all aspects of its ownership, operation and funding of the 500MW HVDC Moyle Interconnector; and EirGrid on the €150 million Phase 1 and €600 million Phase 2 funding of the 500MW HVDC East West Interconnector (Finance Magazine Loans and Finance Deal of the Year 2011) and a bidder on the Basslink Interconnector Project (Australia).
• Upstream gas including advising the State in connection with the consenting and regulation of upstream petroleum including all offshore consents for the Corrib Gas Field and the CER on development and implementation of the Petroleum Safety Framework and, funders and market participants in relation to the Seven Heads Gas Field; market participants in relation to exploration acreage;
• Downstream gas including advising on the development of the Islandmagee Gas Storage Project; Premier Transmission on its ownership, operation and funding of the Scotland to Northern Ireland Gas Pipeline; the CER & NIAUR on the Common Arrangements for Gas; the CER in relation to downstream gas regulation including establishment of an all-island system operator; implementation of Entry/Exit; development of the Unified Code of Operations and licensing of gas storage.
• Energy Market Reform, including advising government, regulators and market participants in relation to the implementation of the Common Arrangements for Gas (Ireland and NI); the Single Electricity Market (Ireland and NI); MAE (Ireland); BETTA (GB); the National Electricity Market (Australia); Gas Entry/Exit (Ireland); NTS Exit Reforms (GB); and Gas Retail Market Implementation (Australia).
• Energy Trading Arrangements including physically and financially settled wholesale and retail electricity contracts (Ireland, NI and Australia); establishment of IIPEX (Ireland); wholesale and retail gas contracts (Ireland, NI and GB); gas storage contracts (Ireland and GB); gas capacity contracts (Ireland, NI and GB); electricity interconnector capacity contracts (NI); and emissions trading arrangements (Ireland).
• PPP/PFI including advising bidders and awarding authorities in Ireland and Northern Ireland on projects in the roads, health, communications, waste and energy sectors, including advising the successful bidder on the €400 million Dublin Waste to Energy PPP Project (FT.com Innovative lawyers commendation 2008; Finance Magazine Project Finance Deal of the Year 2008).
• Telecommunications projects including advising Crown Castle in respect of the rollout of the Hutchison 3 network in Ireland and the acquisition and operation of its mobile infrastructure business in Australia; U-Mobile on RAN Share Agreements in Malaysia; Broadband Communications on the development and operation of the T-50 network in Dublin; and the State on the Metropolitan Area Networks PPP Project.
• Corporatisation and Privatisation including in respect of the Ministry of Electricity and Water (Bahrain), TransGrid (Australia), Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority (Australia), ACT Electricity and Water Corporation (Australia); and the Government Supplies Department (Fiji).
• Mergers & Acquisitions including Viridian Group in respect of its £1.62 billion acquisition by Arcapita; the acquisition of a majority interest in Tynagh Energy by GE; the acquisition of EcoWindPower by Viridian; the disposal by DONG Energy Generation A/S of a majority interest in the Dublin Waste to Energy Project to Covanta Holdings; the disposal of Broadband Communications; the acquisition by Crown Castle of mobile telecommunications infrastructure networks in Australia from Vodafone and Cable & Wireless Optus; the acquisition of multiple renewable energy projects in Ireland and the disposal of a number of CHP Projects.
• Energy Sector Financing including advising EirGrid on the €150 million Phase 1 and €600 million Phase 2 funding of the 500MW HVDC East West Interconnector; EcoWindPower on the cross collateralised portfolio financing of its wind projects in Ireland and Northern Ireland; BNP Paribas on the £100 million funding of the Kilroot Clean Coal & FGD Project; the €400 million funding of the Dublin Waste to Energy Project (Finance Magazine Project Finance Deal of the Year 2008); Viridian in connection with £1.877 billion in acquisition and credit facilities; Viridian on the €200 million funding of the 343MW Huntstown Power Project (first major IPP project financed in Ireland); the €37 million financing of the acquisition of Irish Power Systems by Bioverda; the US$100 million financing of DNO in respect of its interest in the Seven Heads Gas field; and the financing of various small scale wind projects.