Issue 204, Feb 2026

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN SHORT COURSE

Join the Power Futures Lab at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business for an intensive executive education course entitled:

Financial modelling for utility tariff setting

DATES:

Pre-course Week 1: 13 – 17 April 2026 (Online)

Face-to-face Week 2: 20 –24 April 2026 (UCT Graduate School of Business)

COST: R29 950.00 per person (discounts applicable to groups and alumni)

LOCATION: UCT Graduate School of Business, Cape Town

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 24 March 2026

Apply to attend this course here

Register interest in this and other courses here

This executive education course will equip participants with the knowledge and practical skills to build a financial and tariff model – including all constituent parts such as the regulatory asset base, weighted average cost of capital, regulatory treatment of investments, tariff structuring and prudent energy and operation maintenance costs. 

The course furthermore covers the conceptual foundations of economic regulation and uses exciting case studies reflecting the realities of the African power sector and regulatory environments.

At the end of the two weeks, participants should have built a model that can run sensitivity analyses and provide various tariff paths.

The Power Futures Lab

The Power Futures Lab at the UCT Graduate School of Business is a leading centre of excellence and expertise, dedicated to enhancing understanding and building capacity in infrastructure investment, reform and regulation, in support of sustainable development in Africa and other emerging economies.

The teaching method

Week 1 (13 – 17 April 2026) is self-paced and remote, and will require about 3 hours daily of blended online teaching and self-guided preparation via mandatory pre-recorded videos, live and offline exercises, quizzes and selected readings as a requirement for certification. 

Week 2 (20 – 24 April 2026) will be facilitated in-person, face-to-face, by our anchor lecturers and experts to maximize the benefits of learning modelling skills. Participants will spend about 70% of the time using Excel spreadsheets and are required to come with laptops.

Why attend?

Led by Dr. Martin Pardina and Haydn Palliser, globally recognized experts, and supported by seasoned African practitioners, this course equips you with essential skills to develop financial models for tariff setting in regulated environments. Your convenor, Dr. Peter Twesigye, a leading African regulatory expert, ensures content is practical and relevant to the continent’s energy sector.

What you'll gain

- Build financial models for regulated tariff-setting

- Understand key components: regulatory asset base, WACC, energy/input costs

- Perform sensitivity analyses and explore tariff paths

- Apply financial modeling principles to real-world scenarios

- Enhance sector financial performance across Africa

This hands-on programme blends practical application with theoretical insight, ensuring you walk away with the skills to develop robust, effective tariff models that improve utility sustainability and affordability.

Apply to attend this course here

Register interest in this and other courses here

Meet the course faculty

HAYDN PALLISER, Lecturer, Yale & Columbia Universities

Haydn Palliser is a Lecturer at Yale and Columbia Universities, and a Principal at Pivotal180 - a firm focused on training and advisory in the energy, infrastructure, and project finance sectors. With 18 years in the industry, Haydn has a global outlook having worked across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. He has advised and coached regulators and utilities on pricing, regulatory structures, conflict resolution, and valuing expansions. Haydn’s particular expertise lies in simplifying complex topics with best practice financial modelling. Haydn teaches project finance and financial modelling to a wide range of professionals in organizations from bulge bracket investment banks to small developers, regulators and Governments. He was previously the Managing Director for Corality and the co-head of infrastructure and energy for Mazars in the Americas.

DR MARTIN RODRIGUEZ PARDINA, Chief Economist, Ad Hoc Consulting

Martin Rodriguez Pardina is currently Chief Economist of Ad Hoc Consulting and served in the same capacity at Macro Consulting S.A until recently. Ad Hoc Consulting is a consulting firm specialized in economic regulation of utilities. He has experience working as a consultant in regulation and restructuring of public utilities in Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Russia and India. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a degree in economics from the University of Cordoba in Argentina. He has published several articles on utility regulation in international journals and is the coauthor of two books published by the World Bank one on resetting price caps and other on regulatory accounting. Until 2001 he held an academic position as Executive Director of the Economic Regulation Research Center at the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa. Martin is also the anchor lecturer for the UCT GSB “Managing power sector reform and regulation” annual short course.

DR PETER TWESIGYE, Research Lead - Power Market Reforms & Regulation, Power Futures Lab

Dr Peter Twesigye is a senior lecturer and leads research at the Power Futures Lab, focusing on Power Market Reforms, Regulation, and Utility Performance. He has 16 years of experience in the Electricity and Water sectors across Africa and the Caribbean. He also advises, coaches, and trains governments, regulators, utilities, DFIs, MDBs, and international cooperation agencies on power sector reforms, regulation, and financial modeling. He has interest in structural reforms, governance, regulatory incentives for utility performance, and renewable energy transitions. His expertise and teaching spans Energy Policy, Concession Design and Analysis, Tariff Setting, Policy Reviews, Utility Performance Management, Performance Contract Design, Investment Appraisal, Strategic Planning, and Financial Modelling. He leads the African Electricity Regulators Peer Review and Learning Network (PRLN) across 12 African countries and has published in international journals. Additionally, he serves as a guest lecturer at the University of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center (PURC). Until recently, he was the Manager Regulatory Affairs at Umeme Ltd., a private utility concession. He has also advised government ministries and undertaken various consulting projects for development agencies.

Further information and registration

Apply to attend this course here

Register interest in this and other courses here

The course is accredited by ECSA, and participants will earn CPD points on the successful completion of the course. For more information on course fees and registration please email Power Futures Lab or contact course convenor, Dr Peter Twesigye.