Veronica Irastorza

Veronica Irastorza is an Associate Director at NERA Economic Consulting. She has 20 years of experience in regulatory and strategic issues concerning energy. Ms. Irastorza assists clients with issues related to energy regulation and contracts, energy markets, damages, valuations, disputes and arbitration.

Ms. Irastorza leverages her experience as former Undersecretary of Energy Planning and Transition in Mexico, a position she held until December 2012, to help her clients navigate long-term energy project planning, as well as renewable energy and energy efficiency policies. Her planning work as Undersecretary included developing the Mexican National Energy Strategy and producing energy outlooks. She also coordinated the activities relative to national energy statistics and geographic information.

In electricity, Ms. Irastorza has advised governments, regulators, energy companies, investors and large users on industry structure, regulation, sector reform, evaluation of assets, market design, tariffs, planning and forecasting in many countries around the world including Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico and the United States (California and New England). She has worked on matters related to all aspects of the electric power sector, including generation, transmission, ancillary services, distribution, and retailing. 

In natural gas, she has advised companies on the effects of new policies or regulations, as well as on due diligence, mergers & acquisitions. She has also advised governments and regulators on the design of efficient regulations on different aspects of the industry including transportation, distribution and storage as well as planning. Ms. Irastorza was Deputy Director of Planning for Pemex Gas, were she was responsible of the planning and regulatory issues for Mexico`s national gas company. 

Ms. Irastorza also served as Director General of Energy Planning at the Secretary of Energy in Mexico. She was responsible for the first National Energy Strategy with a 15-year outlook and coordinated the energy outlooks for oil, natural gas, LPG, petroleum products, and electricity.  

Additionally, Ms. Irastorza previously served as an advisor to Mexico’s Energy Secretary, during which time she was involved in several projects pertaining to the privatization of natural gas transportation, investment incentives in electricity plants, and other public policy issues. She also taught economics to undergraduates at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico. While attending the University of California at Berkeley, she worked for the California Public Utilities Commission, analyzing transmission investment incentives for the restructured electricity industry.