Seventeen years in infrastructure pricing.

I’m Cato Jorgensen. Ten of those seventeen years were inside IPART; the seven since have been spent advising utilities and supporting regulators – at KPMG, at New North Insights, and now through my own practice.

The advisory work spans regulatory strategy, the development of submissions and business cases – framing, narrative and drafting – technical analysis and peer review, for clients including Sydney Water, Greater Western Water, Lower Murray Water, Seqwater, SA Water, Icon Water, Essential Energy, Western Power, AusNet, Transgrid and NBN Co. It has also included assessments of pricing proposals for IPART and the QCA.

The decade at IPART, from 2009 to 2019, ran across water pricing, public transport fares, retail energy and fuels, and regulatory policy.

Most recently, I was engaged by IPART as expert adviser on its 2026 review of the prices WaterNSW can charge for bulk water delivered through the Broken Hill pipeline, and I supported its review of retail fuel prices in New South Wales.

I hold a Master of Economics (Honours) and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney.

Sector and jurisdictional depth

Most of my work has been in water pricing, with engagements across:

• New South Wales – Sydney Water, Hunter Water, WaterNSW, Sydney Desalination Plant, Cobar Water Board
• Victoria – Barwon Water, Greater Western Water, Lower Murray Water, Goulburn Murray Water
• Queensland – Seqwater, Sunwater, Gladstone Area Water Board
• South Australia – SA Water, Mt Barker District Council
• Australian Capital Territory – Icon Water

In energy and telco the same building-block framework applies: I have advised on regulatory strategy, network price controls, access arrangements and regulatory business cases for electricity, gas and NBN clients.

How I work

Most engagements are scoped around a defined piece of work – a workstream in a review, a submission chapter, an expenditure case – that I take responsibility for and deliver with your team, to your timetable and templates. I write for the regulator that will decide, make the recommendation cleanly, and lay out the evidence in order. Where I disagree with a prior position, I say so directly rather than burying it, and if I do not think a position will survive the regulator’s questions, I will say so before it goes in the document.

I work for regulators and for the businesses they regulate. I never act on both sides of the same matter, and I am transparent about past work wherever a conflict could be perceived.