Transmission

Poland has cut coal's share of power generation from 95% to roughly 55% in a decade, with renewables generating over 30% of the country's power last year. That mismatch is already producing negative prices and turning battery storage into one of the country's biggest investment opportunities.Ed is joined by Tomasz Sęk, Founder and COO of R.Power Renewables, which holds a 1.7GW / 6.3GWh capacity-market-secured storage portfolio, one of the largest in Poland, to unpack how the country's power market is transforming.They cover:- Why coal's inflexibility, not its shrinking market share, is now Poland's biggest driver of negative prices and battery arbitrage.- How Poland's capacity market is evolving as de-rating factors and CapEx fall together, and what that means for the next wave of battery investment.- Why R.Power blends floor-plus-profit-share deals — including its new Axpo agreement — with full-toll contracts to balance risk and upside- How solar PPAs are evolving into Hybrid PPAs, as corporates like Amazon and Cisco look for more flexible, peak-shifted power- How R.Power plans to bring its 1.7GW / 6.3GWh capacity-market-secured portfolio online within 18–24 months, and what's setting the paceWant to go deeper on the Polish power market? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, for the latest on Polish battery revenues, capacity market results, and grid dynamics: Transcript available here:Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:08 Poland's Coal-to-Renewables Shift 1:57 Perception vs Reality of Poland's Energy Mix 4:52 Negative Prices and Coal's Inflexibility 5:58 Gas Peakers vs Battery Storage 7:45 Poland's Vertically Integrated Power Market 8:46 Day-Ahead vs Intraday Trading in Poland 9:54 Choosing a Route-to-Market Partner 12:06 Capacity Market Explained 13:21 R.Power's 1.7GW / 6.3GWh Portfolio 13:57 De-Rating Factors and Falling CapEx 17:00 Dunkelflaute and the Case for Gas 17:21 The Axpo Deal: Floor Plus Profit Share 19:51 Solar PPAs and the Rise of Hybrid PPAs 20:26 Multi-Technology PPAs and Peak Shifting 22:00 What's Slowing Poland's BESS Rollout 23:46 Poland's Grid Queue vs Texas and China 24:51 One Regulatory Fix: Faster Auctions 26:50 Poland's Cost Advantage

Most people assume Great Britain's grid connection queue works on a first come, first served basis. It doesn't - and that misconception is costing developers time and money. Connections reform was meant to bring clarity to the queue, but projects that were declared protected and pushed to the front are still missing their connection dates, and new contract disputes are now stalling projects that should already be moving. It all comes down to what actually gets built — and whether Britain can get anywhere close to Clean Power 2030.Catherine Cleary, Specialist Connections Engineer at Roadnight Taylor and a returning Transmission guest, joins Ed Porter to unpack what's really determining who connects to the grid, and when.They cover:- Why the grid connection queue isn't ordered by application date and how a 20MW battery project can end up waiting behind a nuclear power station for the same network reinforcements.- Why gate two offers under TMO4+ are going out with technical errors, and why fixing something as small as a typo can take months once you're one of hundreds of affected projects.- Why NESO's oversubscription numbers might be the wrong problem to solve, and what bay sharing could do instead.- Why data centres and other demand customers are pushing for independent transmission owner (ITO) status, and what Ofgem's latest signal means for future connections.- Catherine's contrarian take after 15 years in the industry: why Britain might be about to build too much grid, not too little.Want to go deeper on grid connections and battery build-out? Sign up for free to Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, at modo.energy.Chapters:0:00 Introduction1:13 Two myths about the grid connection queue2:05 Queue order vs. connection order: nuclear vs. battery example3:34 The 4.9MW de minimis threshold loophole4:12 TMO4+ and connections reform: from design exercise to rollout6:41 Gate two offer errors and technical query delays9:05 Clean Power 2030 deliverability under connections reform13:37 Engineering capacity for 30GW of battery storage16:01 Bay sharing and hybrid project connections17:49 CMP470: the oversubscribed technology commitment fee22:04 Co-location, AC/DC coupling and TMO4+ shortcomings for hybrids25:15 Fixing TMO4+ for hybrids: the parent/child concept28:05 Data centre and demand connections vs. generation33:39 Politics, policy and the connections queue36:35 Contract delays: the new longest pole in the tent39:16 The case for independent transmission owners (ITOs)41:50 Contrarian view: are we building too much grid?

Battery storage costs have fallen by two-thirds since 2022 and the cell chemistry currently dominates the grid barely existed at scale five years ago, and the same disruption could be about to happen again. Meanwhile, the supplier market is fragmenting rather than consolidating and the biggest names today aren't guaranteed to stay on top.Marek Kubik has watched these shifts happen from inside the industry since the early days. He joins Ed to explain why the balance of power in battery storage keeps changing, and what's coming next.They coverWhy battery storage costs have fallen two-thirds since 2022 - and why that could be about to reverse.The real reason CATL's battery market share has dropped from 32% to 20%.Why sodium-ion batteries could repeat LFP's rapid takeover of grid-scale storage.How battery container design is changing again, from bigger cells to taller stacks.The battery duration limit everyone assumed was fixed - until 16-18 hour systems broke it.Want to dig deeper into battery cell chemistry and pricing trends? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst:Read the companion article: [companion article link — TBC]Chapters00:00 Introduction01:50 Saudi Arabia battery storage market update02:16 UAE 24/7 renewable energy project03:18 Solar plus battery storage economics explained05:10 Battery storage prices: are we near the floor?06:38 Lithium carbonate prices and battery raw material costs08:22 Battery storage cost per kilowatt-hour explained11:07 China battery prices and the race to $50/kWh13:36 Sodium-ion batteries vs LFP: the next chemistry shift21:18 CATL market share and battery supply chain competition26:14 Battery procurement trends and container design innovation29:39 Battery storage service, warranties and spare parts30:54 Lessons from a decade in battery storage32:09 Long duration energy storage and the Ofgem LDES scheme34:48 How much renewable energy storage is enough?38:18 Flow batteries, iron-air and CO2 energy storage39:32 Sodium-ion's future in grid-scale battery storage

GB Energy's £1 million solar investment freed up savings a Hull hospital had left on the table for years. It's an example of what can happen when a state-backed investor takes risks the market won't. GB Energy calls itself an activist investor, built to put public money behind the frontiers where private capital moves too slowly: deepwater wind, long duration storage, public sector solar. The interesting question now is how far this model can scale, and how well it keeps sharing that risk with private capital as it grows.Dan McGrail, CEO of Great British Energy, joins Ed Porter to explain how Britain's state-owned energy company decides where to invest, and why it's taking on the risks private money won't take first.They cover: - Why the "activist investor" model can justify riskier bets than pure-return investors would take - and where that logic stops making sense- How to identify an investment "frontier": the areas of high ambition where private capital isn't moving fast enough to hit national targets- What a queue of 50GW+ in unsolicited co-investment enquiries reveals about investor appetite for state-backed risk-sharing- Why community-owned local energy can outperform national schemes on economic impact - one Orkney turbine now funds housing, buses and insulation- Why chasing niche global market share, not local content quotas, may be the smarter industrial strategy for competing with ChinaGot a question about the build-out of batteries, solar or wind in GB or Europe? That's what Ko is for - sign up to try for free.Read the companion article: [companion article link]You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.Chapters00:00 £1m Solar Saving At A Hull Hospital00:43 Guest Introduction: Dan McGrail, CEO Of GB Energy01:11 GB Energy's Company Model And DESNZ Ownership02:42 Investment Committee Discipline Vs Government Thinking03:23 The "Frontiers" Strategy Explained07:44 Floating Wind And The Deepwater Frontier09:03 ScotWind, Rising Costs And Investor Confidence12:33 Three Strategic Pillars: Offshore, Onshore, Local19:56 Public Entrepreneurship Vs Maximising Profit21:17 The Siemens Story: Why Private Capital Wants In22:35 50GW Of Unsolicited Investment Enquiries26:00 Electrically Qualified Workers And The Skills Gap30:45 Shapinsay's Community-Owned Wind Turbine34:34 Solar On Hospitals And Schools37:16 Balancing Solar With Battery Storage39:56 GB Energy's £8.3 Billion Budget: Progress So Far41:14 Contrarian View: Industrial Legacy Over Cheap Energy

GB Energy's £1 million solar investment freed up savings a Hull hospital had left on the table for years. It's an example of what can happen when a state-backed investor takes risks the market won't. GB Energy calls itself an activist investor, built to put public money behind the frontiers where private capital moves too slowly: deepwater wind, long duration storage, public sector solar. The interesting question now is how far this model can scale, and how well it keeps sharing that risk with private capital as it grows.Dan McGrail, CEO of Great British Energy, joins Ed Porter to explain how Britain's state-owned energy company decides where to invest, and why it's taking on the risks private money won't take first.They cover: - Why the "activist investor" model can justify riskier bets than pure-return investors would take - and where that logic stops making sense- How to identify an investment "frontier": the areas of high ambition where private capital isn't moving fast enough to hit national targets- What a queue of 50GW+ in unsolicited co-investment enquiries reveals about investor appetite for state-backed risk-sharing- Why community-owned local energy can outperform national schemes on economic impact - one Orkney turbine now funds housing, buses and insulation- Why chasing niche global market share, not local content quotas, may be the smarter industrial strategy for competing with ChinaGot a question about the build-out of batteries, solar or wind in GB or Europe? That's what Ko is for - sign up to try for free.Read the companion article: [companion article link]You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.Chapters00:00 £1m Solar Saving At A Hull Hospital00:43 Guest Introduction: Dan McGrail, CEO Of GB Energy01:11 GB Energy's Company Model And DESNZ Ownership02:42 Investment Committee Discipline Vs Government Thinking03:23 The "Frontiers" Strategy Explained07:44 Floating Wind And The Deepwater Frontier09:03 ScotWind, Rising Costs And Investor Confidence12:33 Three Strategic Pillars: Offshore, Onshore, Local19:56 Public Entrepreneurship Vs Maximising Profit21:17 The Siemens Story: Why Private Capital Wants In22:35 50GW Of Unsolicited Investment Enquiries26:00 Electrically Qualified Workers And The Skills Gap30:45 Shapinsay's Community-Owned Wind Turbine34:34 Solar On Hospitals And Schools37:16 Balancing Solar With Battery Storage39:56 GB Energy's £8.3 Billion Budget: Progress So Far41:14 Contrarian View: Industrial Legacy Over Cheap Energy

Germany looks like Europe's most attractive battery storage market on paper: deep power price volatility, a fast-growing renewables build-out, and nearly three gigawatts of batteries already live. In reality, developers are navigating uncertain grid connection queues, gruelling commissioning phases, and a tolling market still working out how much risk is fair to price in.Christina Hepp, Director Strategy, and Leandra Boes, Director Asset Management, both at Green Flexibility, join Ed Porter to unpack what building and operating batteries in Germany actually looks like once the PowerPoint slide meets the grid.They cover:- What a Flexible Connection Agreement actually is and why this kind of trade-off is fast becoming the norm in Germany.- Why grid operators and battery companies have historically struggled to "speak the same language", and how a shared framework like REGIOlink helps translate one side's needs into the other's terms.- What actually happens in the final weeks before a large-scale battery switches on for real: the software integration, testing and last-minute troubleshooting that never makes it into a press release.- Why choosing to sell power on the open market versus locking in a steadier, pre-agreed deal is a much bigger and riskier decision than it sounds - and why Green Flexibility is betting on the option most peers shy away from.- Just how enormous Germany's battery storage pipeline has become: enough grid connection requests queued up that regulators have had to start filtering out the projects that aren't actually going to happen.Want the data behind this conversation? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst:https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast_apps&utm_campaign=green-flexibility&utm_content=ko_signupChapters:00:00 Introduction01:20 Common Misconceptions About Building Batteries in Germany02:24 FID Prep and Commissioning: What Doesn't Make the Press Release03:25 Flexible Connection Agreements (FCAs): The Ski Cannon Example07:54 Germany's FCA Market Standardization10:36 Battery Commissioning in Germany: Lessons From the Toughest Phase14:29 Merchant vs Tolling: Germany's Battery Revenue Models19:30 REGIOlink: Integrating Batteries Into Distribution Grids23:11 Battery Data Sharing With Grid Operators26:27 Germany's Project Development Shakeout29:32 Co-Located Battery Projects: Pros and Cons31:47 Germany's Zonal Pricing Debate for Batteries34:32 Contrarian Views: Merchant Strategy and the German Power Market as "Barbie"

Many people picture a power purchase agreement as a 15-year mega-deal between a tech giant and a solar farm. In reality, 99% of UK PPAs look nothing like that. Power purchase agreements now sit behind a growing chunk of how the UK's electricity supply is sourced, and getting the price wrong could mean getting locked in well above the market rate for years.Ed sits down with Rob Ogden, Founder and CEO of Renewable Exchange - one of the UK's largest PPA marketplaces - to unpack how PPAs are actually priced, why REGO certificate prices have swung from over £20 to just a few pence, and what happens to Europe's ageing wind fleet as 20-year subsidies run out and thousands of turbines are pushed onto the merchant market.They cover:Why the "blue-chip" corporate PPA is the exception in a UK market dominated by short-term utility contracts, and how subsidy schemes from NFFO to CfD shaped that split.How negative and volatile power prices are forcing generators and off-takers to rethink how PPAs are priced and structured.The lessons from Covid and the Ukraine energy crisis on why locking into a 15-year PPA carries real pricing risk.Why matching thousands of small renewable generators with energy suppliers is such a hard problem to solve, and what it takes to build pricing infrastructure that can handle PPA demand spiking overnight.Why REGO prices have swung from over £20 to just a few pence, and the case for moving to 24/7 REGO matching.Want to see what future power prices look like right now? Head to Modo Energy and ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst — sign-up's free and takes seconds.Read the companion article: [companion article link placeholder]Chapters00:00 Introduction: Is Your "100% Green" Tariff Really Green?01:15 What People Get Wrong About Power Purchase Agreements03:45 UK Power Purchase Agreement Market Structure04:57 UK Renewable Subsidy History: NFFO, RO, FiT and CfD07:16 PPA Regret: Negative Pricing and Value Erosion09:49 Long-Term PPA Risk Through Covid and the Ukraine Crisis14:32 Hybrid PPA and Flexibility Contract Structures17:46 Renewable Exchange Origin Story: The Aberdeenshire Wind Farmers19:53 Platform Scaling Pains: Rebuilding Three Times22:41 Renewable Exchange's Impact on Consumer Energy Costs24:30 Co-Located Solar and Battery Revenue Streams26:58 REGO Explained: Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin32:16 The Case for 24/7 REGO Matching36:27 Expanding to Germany: Legacy Wind Assets and Repowering41:13 Contrarian Take: Ending Renewable Energy Subsidies

Many people picture a power purchase agreement as a 15-year mega-deal between a tech giant and a solar farm. In reality, 99% of UK PPAs look nothing like that. Power purchase agreements now sit behind a growing chunk of how the UK's electricity supply is sourced, and getting the price wrong could mean getting locked in well above the market rate for years.Ed sits down with Rob Ogden, Founder and CEO of Renewable Exchange - one of the UK's largest PPA marketplaces - to unpack how PPAs are actually priced, why REGO certificate prices have swung from over £20 to just a few pence, and what happens to Europe's ageing wind fleet as 20-year subsidies run out and thousands of turbines are pushed onto the merchant market.They cover:Why the "blue-chip" corporate PPA is the exception in a UK market dominated by short-term utility contracts, and how subsidy schemes from NFFO to CfD shaped that split.How negative and volatile power prices are forcing generators and off-takers to rethink how PPAs are priced and structured.The lessons from Covid and the Ukraine energy crisis on why locking into a 15-year PPA carries real pricing risk.Why matching thousands of small renewable generators with energy suppliers is such a hard problem to solve, and what it takes to build pricing infrastructure that can handle PPA demand spiking overnight.Why REGO prices have swung from over £20 to just a few pence, and the case for moving to 24/7 REGO matching.Want to see what future power prices look like right now? Head to Modo Energy and ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst — sign-up's free and takes seconds.Read the companion article: [companion article link placeholder]Chapters00:00 Introduction: Is Your "100% Green" Tariff Really Green?01:15 What People Get Wrong About Power Purchase Agreements03:45 UK Power Purchase Agreement Market Structure04:57 UK Renewable Subsidy History: NFFO, RO, FiT and CfD07:16 PPA Regret: Negative Pricing and Value Erosion09:49 Long-Term PPA Risk Through Covid and the Ukraine Crisis14:32 Hybrid PPA and Flexibility Contract Structures17:46 Renewable Exchange Origin Story: The Aberdeenshire Wind Farmers19:53 Platform Scaling Pains: Rebuilding Three Times22:41 Renewable Exchange's Impact on Consumer Energy Costs24:30 Co-Located Solar and Battery Revenue Streams26:58 REGO Explained: Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin32:16 The Case for 24/7 REGO Matching36:27 Expanding to Germany: Legacy Wind Assets and Repowering41:13 Contrarian Take: Ending Renewable Energy Subsidies

How dangerous are battery storage fires, really? Despite the headlines, grid-scale battery fire failure rates have fallen 99% since 2018 - from around 4 incidents per gigawatt hour to under 0.1. Even as global deployment scaled into the tens of gigawatt hours. Most people still picture a whole site going up in flames. The engineering tells a very different story. Dan Sherlock-Burke, Director of Asset Management at Gore Street Capital, joins Ed Porter for a technical look at how battery fire safety actually works - from the Moss Landing fire that shaped public perception, to the data that can flag a failing module weeks before it fails. He explains what really happens minute-by-minute when a cell enters thermal runaway, why most BESS fires trace back to operations rather than faulty cells, and why fire suppression isn't always the safeguard it appears to be.They cover:- Battery fire propagation: why "let it burn" is increasingly viable, and how modern container design has made fires spreading across a site vanishingly rare- BESS fire statistics: how EPRI's failure incident database shows a fall from around 4 incidents per gigawatt hour in 2018 to under 0.1 today, a 99% reduction- What causes battery fires: why only ~11% start with a faulty cell, while ~65% trace back to operations and integration- LFP vs NMC battery chemistry: lower combustion temperatures, no self-supplied oxygen, and why lithium iron phosphate still isn't "inherently safe"- Battery fire suppression: the contrarian case for why the wrong system can turn a fire into an explosionAsk Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, about battery storage safety and fire risk. Get started now.You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.0:00 - What everyone gets wrong about battery fires2:42 - Battery fire propagation and site design4:04 - Moss Landing fire: what actually happened7:04 - LFP vs NMC battery chemistry explained9:04 - Why lithium iron phosphate isn't "inherently safe"13:08 - Using data to catch thermal runaway early15:53 - EPRI's battery failure incident database16:27 - How battery fire rates fell 99% since 201818:58 - What causes battery fires: the 11% vs 65% split23:26 - Why most battery fires go unreported28:01 - Inside thermal runaway, minute by minute34:44 - Fire suppression and the explosion risk39:09 - The Liverpool battery fire41:11 - Rethinking battery fire suppression

How dangerous are battery storage fires, really? Despite the headlines, grid-scale battery fire failure rates have fallen 99% since 2018 - from around 4 incidents per gigawatt hour to under 0.1. Even as global deployment scaled into the tens of gigawatt hours. Most people still picture a whole site going up in flames. The engineering tells a very different story. Dan Sherlock-Burke, Director of Asset Management at Gore Street Capital, joins Ed Porter for a technical look at how battery fire safety actually works - from the Moss Landing fire that shaped public perception, to the data that can flag a failing module weeks before it fails. He explains what really happens minute-by-minute when a cell enters thermal runaway, why most BESS fires trace back to operations rather than faulty cells, and why fire suppression isn't always the safeguard it appears to be.They cover:- Battery fire propagation: why "let it burn" is increasingly viable, and how modern container design has made fires spreading across a site vanishingly rare- BESS fire statistics: how EPRI's failure incident database shows a fall from around 4 incidents per gigawatt hour in 2018 to under 0.1 today, a 99% reduction- What causes battery fires: why only ~11% start with a faulty cell, while ~65% trace back to operations and integration- LFP vs NMC battery chemistry: lower combustion temperatures, no self-supplied oxygen, and why lithium iron phosphate still isn't "inherently safe"- Battery fire suppression: the contrarian case for why the wrong system can turn a fire into an explosionAsk Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, about battery storage safety and fire risk: Get started now.Read the companion article: You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.0:00 - What everyone gets wrong about battery fires2:42 - Battery fire propagation and site design4:04 - Moss Landing fire: what actually happened7:04 - LFP vs NMC battery chemistry explained9:04 - Why lithium iron phosphate isn't "inherently safe"13:08 - Using data to catch thermal runaway early15:53 - EPRI's battery failure incident database16:27 - How battery fire rates fell 99% since 201818:58 - What causes battery fires: the 11% vs 65% split23:26 - Why most battery fires go unreported28:01 - Inside thermal runaway, minute by minute34:44 - Fire suppression and the explosion risk39:09 - The Liverpool battery fire41:11 - Rethinking battery fire suppression

The atmosphere is unpredictable, and weather forecasts are far more reliable on some days than others. For anyone trading power or gas across Europe, knowing the difference is everything. It's what separates a confident call from an expensive guess. In this conversation, Ed is joined by Matt Dobson - Head of European Energy Forecasting and Emma Patmore, Energy Meteorologist from MetDesk. They walk us through when they can trust what they're seeing and when they can't, and how they turn an uncertain forecast into something traders can actually act on. Along the way they cover wind droughts (or Dunkelflaute), a possible record El Niño, river levels that shut down power stations, and the rise of AI weather modelsThey cover- How weather forecast accuracy isn't fixed: Why a day-ahead wind forecast lands within 10–15% around 80% of the time, but a shifted low-pressure track can swing output 30–40%.- Dunkelflaute explained: How a blocking high-pressure system causes a wind drought, and why the longest recent German event ran nine days in early November 2024.- El Niño and energy markets: Why a milder autumn means lower heating demand and gives traders reason to sell Q4 gas.- AI weather models vs traditional models: why AI is pulling ahead at the 10–20 day horizon while traditional models stay sharper on fine-scale detail.- Heatwaves and nuclear power: How 40°C heat in France and low river levels force nuclear curtailment and Rhine freight limits, echoing 2022.Want to see how weather is moving European power and gas prices right now? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst: Free sign up: https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast_apps&utm_campaign=metdesk&utm_content=ko_signupRead the companion article: [COMPANION ARTICLE URL]You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.Chapters0:00 - How weather forecasting drives energy markets1:01 - What everyone gets wrong about weather forecasting1:26 - Why forecast accuracy changes with the time horizon4:03 - Saharan dust and solar power generation6:02 - How weather varies over short distances7:11 - Dunkelflaute explained: wind drought conditions8:20 - German wind power and the nine-day wind drought11:08 - Teleconnections: El Nino, ENSO and the MJO12:54 - Record El Nino forecast and what it means17:30 - Trading El Nino: gas, hydro and Alpine snow17:56 - Why traders go short Q4 gas18:58 - ECMWF data and ensemble forecasting19:35 - How weather ensembles work: 151 members21:39 - AI weather models vs traditional forecasting23:25 - Are weather forecasts getting more accurate?26:17 - Climate change and weather forecasting27:50 - French heatwaves and nuclear power curtailment31:10 - Low Rhine levels and freight restrictions33:11 - The polar vortex and sudden stratospheric warming36:15 - The Beast from the East explained

Two thirds of industrial energy demand is heat, not electricity, and most of it still runs on gas. Thermal storage converts cheap electricity into heat, stores it in concrete, and dispatches it when the factory needs it, undercutting the gas bill even though gas is cheaper per unit on average. Alex Robertson, CEO of Energy Nest, joins Ed Porter to explain how a thermal battery works, why it competes with lithium-ion on cost, and why grid connections - not the technology - are the real constraint on industrial decarbonisation.They cover:- Why thermal storage functions like a battery on the energy markets but stores heat one-way in optimised concrete.- The medium-temperature "frying, drying and applying" range (roughly 150 to 300C) that sits above heat pumps and below cement and steel.- How decoupling thermal demand from the electricity price typically can cut the gas bill by around 50%.- Why a 20-foot-container module stores about two megawatt hours, stacks three high, and loses only around 2% of capacity per day.- Why a flexible, interruptible asset is exactly what congested grids need - and why Germany still lacks the flexible connection framework the Netherlands is rolling out.Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, any question from this conversation: [Ko link]Read the companion article: [URL placeholder]Modo Energy's solar and battery forecasts are live at modo.energy.You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.Chapters 0:00 - Introduction0:11 - Industrial heat demand and the gas problem1:13 - One thing everyone gets wrong about thermal storage3:14 - How the concrete thermal battery works4:08 - Medium temperature heat and the customer profile6:56 - Why gas boilers still dominate German industry7:52 - Using storage to beat the gas price10:09 - Concrete versus lithium-ion: cost and supply chain13:10 - Degradation and the 25-year thermal capacity16:02 - Scaling up: module size and storage capacity16:40 - Daily cycling and storage duration economics19:50 - Seasonal variation and running gas in winter23:33 - Cost, savings and the five-year payback24:36 - The ideal customer and the grid connection test25:46 - Data centres, demand queues and grid congestion28:02 - Flexible connection agreements and the system design gap30:10 - Grid utilisation versus grid buildout33:34 - Heat as a service and unlocking investment36:04 - A contrarian view on industrial decarbonisationMusic licensed via Artlist.

Germany's battery storage market is booming - but a saturation crunch is coming, and most investors aren't ready for it. The question is which revenue streams hold up, and which collapse the way they did in GB, Texas, and Australia.Ed sits down with Till Stehr, German Research Analyst, and Cosima from the Advisory Services Team at Modo Energy, to map the real structural drivers, and risks, behind German BESS returns.They cover: Why German battery saturation is closer than the market thinks - FCR is already saturated, with aFRR close behind.• Why German battery revenues near €200,000/MW/year for a two-hour system are more about timing than structure.• What makes Germany's intraday market the most liquid in Europe and the €1,000+/MWh spikes batteries feed on.• How flexible connection agreements are quietly reshaping returns, from ramp rates to export caps.• What German grid fees look like after the 2029 exemption and why dynamic fees are locational pricing through the back door.Got a question about the German BESS market? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst: https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=till_cosima&utm_content=ko_signupChapters:00:00 – An Introduction tGermany's Battery Storage Market 00:50 – What Investors Get Wrong About Germany02:33 – Why Ancillary Services Saturate Fast03:47 – German Battery Revenues: €200k per MW05:24 – Structural Value: Solar and Intraday Trading06:30 – Redispatch Costs and Locational Pricing08:04 – FCR and aFRR Explained09:37 – Battery Saturation and the Overbuilt Ratio14:08 – Europe's Most Liquid Intraday Market18:50 – Battery Interconnection: Friend or Foe?21:52 – Negative Power Prices in Germany25:36 – Flexible Connection Agreements Explained32:19 – Battery Inertia and Grid-Forming Inverters35:53 – German Grid Fees: What's Announced40:37 – Contrarian Views: DSOs and Locational Pricing

Most battery revenue projections stop at the day-ahead auction. But the optimisers running multi-gigawatt BESS portfolios argue that's where the money is being left on the table - re-trading a battery through intraday, balancing, and ancillary services can add 50% or more to revenue, and battery offtake structures like floors, tolls, and swaps only make sense once you understand how that value actually gets captured.In this episode of Transmission, Ed Porter sits down with Brian Lonn, Head of UK Flexibility at Statkraft, to break down how a multi-gigawatt battery optimisation desk actually trades batteries and the offtake structures it offers on top.They cover:How battery re-trading works in practice.How Statkraft scaled its GB flex portfolio from 22MW of intraday-active battery volume to ~4.5GW under contract and why this scale is the precondition for offering offtake at all.Why the battery optimisation market could consolidate and what that means for smaller optimisers and asset owners.How battery floors, tolls, and day-ahead swaps differ in tenor and purpose, with a working £/MW ballpark for each on a 2-hour battery.Brian's contrarian view on Clean Power 2030: why the real question for the GB power system is megawatt-hours, not megawatts.Want sharper answers on battery storage markets? Ko is Modo Energy's AI analyst, built on our underlying data and research. Ask Ko anything: https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=brian_lonn&utm_content=ko_signupRead the companion article: [COMPANION ARTICLE URL — TBC]You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.00:00 Introduction01:06 What everyone gets wrong about battery asset optimisation05:14 Statkraft's GB flex portfolio — scaling to 4.5GW07:24 Inside a battery trading desk — the operational reality10:02 Re-trading explained — and the £100 to £150 worked example16:49 How algorithmic intraday battery trading has evolved19:50 Re-trading uplift — 50%+ over day-ahead-only battery revenue22:14 The balancing mechanism and NESO's role in battery dispatch29:58 Battery offtake structures — floors, tolls, and day-ahead swaps37:35 Co-location — solar and battery storage in the GB market45:36 How to break into battery asset optimisation and energy trading49:04 Brian's contrarian view — megawatts vs megawatt-hours50:03 Why battery augmentation matters for Clean Power 2030Music licensed via Artlist.

The scope of the National Energy System Operator - or NESO - has expanded from running the electricity system to planning Britain's whole energy system across electricity, gas and hydrogen, all while delivering connections reform and steering toward Clean Power 2030. That transformation is reshaping everything from how Britain plans its grid 20 years out to how it keeps the lights on tonight. Ed Porter is joined by Kayte O'Neill, Chief Operating Officer at the National Energy System Operator (NESO), for a wide-ranging conversation on the biggest reforms in the GB power market: grid connections reform, the battery storage queue, zero-carbon grid operation, and the next wave of electricity market reform.They cover:Connections reform and the UK grid queue — how NESO has cut the 800GW queue down to a deliverable pipeline and what Gate 2 means for developers over the next 12 months.The battery storage connections queue and how NESO is thinking about attrition, bay sharing and co-location.Zero-carbon operation of the GB grid and why gas plants still run on windy, sunny days (stability services, inertia, grid-forming inverters)NESO's expanded whole-system role - strategic planning across electricity, gas and hydrogen, and the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP)Reformed National Pricing, data centre demand connections, AI in the control room, and the £40bn/year investment unlock at stake.Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI energy analyst, your questions on UK grid operations and BESS markets: https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=kayte_oneill&utm_content=ko_signupRead our companion article: [companion article link]Hosted by Ed Porter, Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.Chapters:00:00 - Intro: what people get wrong about NESO04:15 - NESO's new role in gas security of supply05:49 - The summer outlook and GB's low-demand operability problem07:48 - Why gas still runs on the GB grid on windy, sunny days09:49 - Stability services and the path to zero-carbon grid operation11:03 - The 97.7% zero-carbon record on 1 April 202512:40 - Stability pathfinders, inertia markets and grid-forming inverters17:04 - The winter challenge: gigawatts vs terawatt-hours21:33 - Connections reform: from 800GW to a deliverable grid23:54 - What connections reform means for developers next26:01 - The skilled-labour bottleneck behind grid build-out30:32 - Battery queue attrition and the BESS oversupply problem33:51 - The Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP)38:59 - Co-location and bay sharing: the unfinished reform44:35 - Reformed National Pricing and GB electricity market reform49:13 - Data, digital and AI in the NESO control room51:44 - The 2026 Operability Strategy Report and Markets Roadmap52:24 - A contrarian case for connections reformMusic licensed via Artlist.

Three years ago, the best price for a ready-to-build solar project in Spain was €200,000 per megawatt — today it is €50,000. Batteries have moved the opposite way, with ready-to-build prices climbing to around €100,000 per megawatt and a 30GW pipeline now stacking up behind them.Ed Porter sits down with Carmen Izquierdo Serrano, founder of nTeaser, the renewable energy marketplace where many of Spain's BESS, solar, and co-located deals are transacting, to unpack what those numbers actually mean for investors entering the Spanish power market and how the post-blackout urgency, and bottlenecks in financing and labour will shape who wins the next phase of Spain's energy transitionThey cover:Why Spanish solar ready-to-build prices have collapsed from €200,000 to €50,000 per megawatt while battery prices have climbed to ~€100,000 per megawatt in the space of three yearsHow the 30GW Spain BESS pipeline stacks up against the ~3.5GW expected to be operating by 2030, and why Carmen thinks that operating-asset forecast is conservativeWhere the real bottleneck is for delivery - not developers or permits, but bank financing and the skilled labour needed to construct the projectsWhy Italy's BESS market has slowed after the first MACSE auction while Spain has accelerated, and what that means for capital allocation across Southern Europe.How buyer expectations on arbitrage revenues are likely to be cannibalised as more batteries enter the market, and which revenue streams banks will actually finance againstWant to go deeper on Spanish BESS revenues? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, can walk you through asset-specific forecasts: https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=carmen_izquierdo&utm_content=ko_signupChapters:0:00 - Spain solar prices crashed from €200K to €50K per MW1:10 - Why the Spain BESS market is misunderstood2:35 - Spain's 30GW battery storage pipeline explained3:25 - Inside nTeaser: Spain's renewable energy M&A platform5:00 - Is the 3.5GW Spain battery forecast for 2030 too low?7:50 - Spain BESS bottlenecks: bank financing and labour10:00 - Who is buying Spanish battery projects in 202612:50 - Spain vs Italy BESS: the MACSE auction setback15:00 - Data centres and behind-the-meter co-location in Spain18:00 - When Spain battery projects become bankable19:30 - Spain capacity market timing and revenue impact20:30 - BESS arbitrage cannibalisation and revenue stacking21:45 - Poland, Romania, and BESS expansion across Europe23:30 - How nTeaser is changing European renewables M&ATransmission is a Modo Energy podcast hosted by Ed Porter, Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.

Chris Stark is Head of UK’s Mission for Clean Power, As Head of Mission Control at DESNZ, no one sees the constraint costs, grid bottlenecks and reform of National Pricing trade-offs more clearly. The UK is building a clean power system at a pace not seen since the 1960s, connecting record volumes of wind and solar while transmission, storage and gas all reshape around them. Constraint costs have hit £7 billion, gas is being squeezed off the system, and the government has just rewritten the rules of the wholesale market.Chris joins Ed Porter to break down what Mission Control is actually delivering, where flexibility and storage fit into the 2030 plan, and what Reformed National Pricing means for investors, generators and consumers.They cover:Why building UK transmission lines takes 8-10 years — and why bringing two projects forward by a year is worth £4bn to consumers.Why the UK chose to build the grid and the generation simultaneously, and the risks that creates.Why the strategic spatial energy plan is the biggest energy decision coming in the next 12 months and how it sets up a "build it once" network for the future.The reform of National Pricing decision, what the wholesale CfD means in practice and how electricity is being de-linked from gas.Why flexibility is the "forgotten third child" of the energy transition and how dunkelflaute, long-duration storage and household batteries fit into the 2030s system.Chris's contrarian take on carbon pricing - why he thinks the Treasury's decision to remove the Carbon Price Support from gas signals carbon pricing is "coming down the list of things that matters.”Want to model how Clean Power 2030, REMA and the wholesale CFD reshape GB power prices? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Free sign up: https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=chris_stark&utm_content=ko_signup────────────────────────────⏱ CHAPTERS00:00 - Introduction01:09 - What everyone gets wrong about Mission Control03:00 - Constraint costs as a UK grid health metric04:30 - Why the £7 billion constraint cost forecast may not land09:18 - The biggest UK transmission build since the 1960s10:36 - Sea Link, Norwich to Tilbury and the £4 billion question15:29 - Building a UK grid ready to double electricity demand by 205017:59 - From centralised transmission to flexible, dynamic networks21:16 - Reform of National Pricing: why the UK said no to zonal28:48 - Wholesale CfDs and decoupling UK power from gas prices37:13 - Flexibility, batteries and the forgotten third pillar42:16 - Markets versus state intervention in UK energy47:28 - Long duration energy storage and the battery technology race49:35 - Managing the UK gas fleet down to 5% by 203053:21 - Chris's contrarian view: the end of carbon pricing?55:42 - Closing thoughtsYou can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.

Germany sits at the centre of Europe's energy transition: over 800 distribution networks, deep intraday markets, and a flexibility gap roughly 40 times its battery fleet. But the real question isn't whether the market is big - it's whether it saturates as battery capacity grows, or scales for years yet.Philipp Man is co-founder and CEO of Terralayr. He joins Ed Porter to unpack the operational reality of building Germany battery storage at scale, the regulatory tension around grid fees, and the contrarian view that Germany's flexibility market is structurally larger than most forecasts suggest.They cover:- Why operating Germany battery storage is harder than capital alone can solve.- Why Germany's TSOs are positive on BESS, why DSOs are nervous and what regulators need to fix.- What the Bundesnetzagentur grid-fee review means for the BESS exemption running to August 2029.- How splitting merchant capacity across multiple optimisers outperforms single-optimiser tolls.- Why flexibility revenues are convex, dominated by tail events, and structurally larger than forecasts predict.Want to track Germany's battery storage pipeline, grid-fee changes, or flexibility market data? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Free sign up: https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast_apps&utm_campaign=philipp_man&utm_content=ko_signupTranscript available here: ⏱ CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction01:01 What everyone gets wrong about Germany battery storage04:50 Inside Terralayr's 8 GW pipeline07:00 German grid fees and the 2029 BESS exemption11:00 Why DSOs are nervous about battery storage14:30 Nodal pricing, FCAs and the one-price-zone problem18:30 How layer's virtual battery auction works24:30 Will Germany's BESS market saturate35:30 Markets outside Germany — UK, Spain, Nordics37:00 Advice for new entrants and the coming consolidation40:30 Contrarian view: flexibility revenues are convex`You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.Music licensed via Artlist.

Developing battery storage in emerging markets isn't a technology problem - it's a regulatory, offtake, and capital problem. The frameworks, offtake structures, and capital mandates weren't built for storage and that gap is exactly where the risk sits.Hassen Bali, co-founder and director at Ion Ventures, joins Ed Porter to discuss what it actually takes to develop battery storage projects across markets at very different stages of maturity, from the UK to Southeast Asia.They cover:- Why battery storage development demands a different approach to solar or wind and why you have to decide your commercial endpoint before you break ground, not after.- How project conversion rates in the UK BESS market have dropped from 30–40% in the early days to roughly 10–15% today, and how that affects pipeline management and investor communications.- Why early-stage BESS markets like Malaysia and the Philippines are still reliant on bilateral offtake and what that means for project bankability.- Why FCA-regulated investors face hard legal barriers to project finance in sub-investment-grade countries and what that means for who can actually back early-stage BESS projects.- Hassen's contrarian view: that reform of merit order and legacy thermal contracts is the most direct lever for accelerating energy transition globally even if it means unwinding agreements that investors consider bulletproof.Want to model BESS revenue across different market structures? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Want to model BESS revenue across different market structures? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Free sign up here.Transcript available here: Chapters:0:00 Introduction0:53 What People Get Wrong About Developing Battery Storage Projects2:41 BESS Project Development Pipeline: How to Manage Investors and Conversion Rates5:58 Why Ion Ventures Expanded Into Southeast Asia7:34 BESS Market Readiness in Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei8:32 Replacing Coal and Diesel: What Southeast Asian Grids Look Like Today11:35 BESS Project Success Rates in Emerging Markets vs the UK12:39 Why Bilateral Offtake Models Dominate Early-Stage BESS Markets15:17 Why Long-Term Contracts Can Actually Help Battery Storage Bankability16:05 Why Country Risk and OECD Classification Block Capital From Emerging BESS Markets21:02 Can Emerging Markets Leapfrog to Grid 2.0? The Telco Analogy Explained22:59 How to Build a Battery Storage Roadmap for a Nascent Grid: Lessons from Bangladesh30:06 How to Avoid Grid Congestion When Scaling Renewables in Emerging Markets32:17 Contrarian View: Should Merit Order Reform Unwind Legacy Thermal Contracts?You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.

Spain has approximately 42GW of utility-scale solar and 50GW when rooftop is included, yet less than 100MW of grid-connected battery storage. In February, solar capture rates hit €1.30 per megawatt hour, a fraction of the €30–35/MWh needed for a solar project to break even. So why hasn't battery storage followed the solar boom and could it be the key to rescuing solar revenues?Pablo Martinez Serrano, Iberia Industry Lead at Modo Energy, joins Ed Porter to break down why Spain's energy market defies easy assumptions, and what the Iberian blackout changed.They cover:- Why Spain's hydro fleet masked the need for batteries for years, and why that's no longer enough as solar saturation bites.- Why solar developers are earning less and less for every unit of power they generate and what that means for the projects still in the pipeline.- The co-location thesis: why existing solar asset owners are turning to BESS to fix their generation profile and unlock ancillary service revenue- What actually caused the Iberian blackout: voltage instability, cascading disconnections, and why the TSO had already flagged the risk- Spain's new voltage control market: how it works, why priority of dispatch may be more valuable than the reactive service payment itselfWant to model battery revenue stacks in Spain or track Iberian power market dynamics? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Free sign up: https://help.modo.energy/en/articles/13335470-ko-your-ai-analyst?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast_apps&utm_id=pablo_martinez⏱ CHAPTERS00:00:00 Introduction00:00:50 What everyone gets wrong about Spain00:01:54 Spain's generation mix: solar, wind, hydro, gas and nuclear00:04:43 Seasonal demand dynamics and why spring is the problem00:06:03 Solar capture price collapse: €42 to below €30/MWh00:08:19 PPA contracts, negative prices and the solar momentum problem00:11:52 The co-location pivot: why developers are turning to storage00:13:58 Why Spain has less than 100MW of batteries vs GB's 6GW00:15:33 Where the money is coming from: two types of investor00:17:11 The Iberian blackout: what went wrong and why00:20:04 How Spain is rebuilding grid stability after the blackout00:21:04 Spain's new voltage control market and what it pays00:24:43 Grid forming inverters and the future of ancillary services00:26:38 Contrarian take: Spain hasn't actually decoupled from gas00:29:15 The three phases of displacing thermal generators00:30:39 Closing remarksYou can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.

Smart EV charging isn't just about saving money on your electricity bill, it's quietly becoming one of the most scalable sources of grid flexibility in Great Britain. Ohme has run the numbers: incentivising 22,000 customers to plug in more often drove a 32–37% increase in plug-in frequency, unlocking dispatchable flexibility across 60 National Grid events.In this episode, Ed is joined by Joshua Willetts and Dan Norton from Ohme. Josh is part of Ohme's customer operations team and starts the conversation with a live demo of the Ohme Home Pro, and then Dan Ohme's Commercial Director takes us through a deep dive of the economics, regulation, and long-term potential of smart home charging.They cover:- How the Ohme Home Pro works, tethered setup, app pairing, tariff integration, and smart scheduling on Octopus Go and equivalent time-of-use tariffs.- Why plugging in little and often (rather than running to empty and topping up) is the behavioural shift that unlocks real-world EV flexibility.- The CrowdFlex trial results: how a 1–3 GBP/week incentive delivered a 32–37% rise in plug-in frequency and fed directly into National Grid dispatch events- What smart charging regulation, including the Energy Smart Appliance (ESA) framework and load control licensing means for charger manufacturers and aggregators- How V2G and vehicle-to-home could evolve once older EV fleets start cycling into second-hand markets, and what cultural shifts are needed firstWant to model EV flexibility potential in your market? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Free sign up: [KO UTM LINK]Transcript available here: [TRANSCRIPT LINK]────────────────────────────────────────────────────────⏱ CHAPTERS0:00 Intro — Ed Porter, Welcome to Transmission1:04 Meet Joshua & the Ohme Home Pro1:52 App Setup, QR Code Pairing & Smart Scheduling4:44 Why a Box? What's Inside an EV Smart Charger5:22 Live Demo: Charging a Light Bulb via the Ohme App7:53 Charge Speed, Battery Times & Little-and-Often Strategy11:37 Introducing Dan: EV Adoption Stats & the UK Home Charge Market13:33 Barriers to Home EV Charging Installation18:44 Home Charging vs. Public Charging: The Economics20:06 CrowdFlex Explained: Smart Charging as Grid Flexibility23:11 CrowdFlex Results.26:32 Smart Charging Regulation: ESA, Load Control & Revenue Certainty28:43 How Big Could EV Flexibility Get? GB Grid Scale30:34 Vehicle to Grid (V2G) & Vehicle to Home: What's Coming34:40 What Would You Change? Flexibility Contracts as Steel in the Ground────────────────────────────────────────────────────────You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter — Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.

Battery storage looks simple - a steel box that charges when prices are low and discharges when they're high. But financing a BESS project in Europe means underwriting a trading position: convex revenues, volatile returns, and a growing menu of contractual choices that each shift the risk profile in a different direction.Lisa McDermott, Managing Director and Head of Energy Transition Project Financing at ABN AMRO, has been structuring BESS deals across Europe since 2020. In this episode, she opens up the credit committee. What gets a project over the line, and what quietly stops it.Covered:- Why battery storage finance is fundamentally different from solar or wind and why contracting it away doesn't change the underlying risk when the contract ends.- From physical tolls to day-ahead swaps, Lisa breaks down which offtake structures are gaining traction in Europe and why the day-ahead swap is the hardest to bank.- Too much merchant exposure, insufficient sponsor equity, weak technical track record and why pushing too many levers at once is the fastest way to stop a deal.- How battery warranties have evolved from 8 to 20 years and why coverage beyond the debt tenor is a bankability requirement, not a nice-to-have.- Germany's grid fee reform has created financing uncertainty at COD, while the Netherlands' congestion model is, counter-intuitively, better for bankability.Want to model battery revenue stacks or stress-test tolling structures for a specific market? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Free sign up: https://help.modo.energy/en/articles/13335470-ko-your-ai-analyst?utm_source=podcast_apps&utm_medium=podcast&utm_id=lisa_mcdermottTranscript available here: ────────────────────────────⏱ CHAPTERS0:00 Introduction - Is financing battery storage the same as financing solar?2:32 Why a battery is financing a trader, not an infrastructure asset5:14 Financing across technology types - TRL 8 vs TRL 910:43 What stops a BESS deal in credit committee15:53 Comfort zone: from fully merchant to fully contracted18:43 The growing offtake menu, physical tolls, virtual tolls, and floors24:43 Day-ahead swaps explained and why they introduce basis risk31:59 Gearing: the sliding scale from 30% merchant to 85% fully tolled34:37 European market comparison: Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany40:23 Final question ────────────────────────────You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter — Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.

The battery storage gold rush is over in most major markets. What's replaced it is more complex, more competitive, and if you're not careful with your contracts - potentially more exposed than the merchant era ever was. It is often thought that offtake deals like tolls de-risk a battery project, but that might be one of the biggest misconceptions in BESS right now.The market is maturing fast, but the players who thrive won't be the ones who got in first -they'll be the ones who understood the complexity earliest.Sam Harden is Global Director at Enfinity Global, joins Ed to challenge conventional thinking on BESS contracts, market maturity, and what it actually takes to build and operate storage assets at scale.They cover:- Why BESS tolls redistribute risk rather than remove it and how availability penalties can cost you more than lost merchant revenue.- The MACSE auction in Italy: what 15-year fixed-revenue contracts mean for asset owners, and why the incumbent utility won the majority of the first round.- Whether the battery storage gold rush is truly over and why the market is maturing into an asset class, not saturating.- How Enfinity Global is futureproofing project design for duration augmentation, grid-forming inverters, and services like inertia and voltage control.- Why the biggest bottleneck to Europe's 50GW battery buildout isn't technology or capital - it's qualified people.Want to track BESS revenues, tolling structures, and market dynamics across Europe and beyond? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Free sign up: https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast_apps&utm_medium=podcast&utm_id=sam_hardenTranscript available here: ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────⏱ CHAPTERS0:00 Introduction0:50 Are tolls a silver bullet for BESS risk management?5:15 Italy's MACSE auction explained6:05 Is the battery gold rush over?10:30 From scarcity trade to operational excellence13:00 Battery storage as a maturing asset class — good or bad?16:40 How to develop BESS sites for the future19:38 Battery augmentation and energy density gains21:28 Will the battery sector consolidate?25:13 How to position for above-infrastructure returns26:25 Operational risk: what spreadsheets can't capture28:00 Warranties vs. real-world asset management30:13 Supply chain and talent: the hidden bottleneck33:12 One change to accelerate European battery rollout34:49 Wrap-up────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday. Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.

Most BESS revenue forecasts aren't wrong, they're just being used for the wrong thing. The gap between a valuation-grade forecast and what a project actually earns in a live market is where BESS developers win or lose. The developers who survive that gap are the ones who design for uncertainty from the start - not after the fact.Recorded live at the Investing in Battery Energy Storage conference, Paul Mason, Chief Investment Officer of Harmony Energy, joins Ed Porter for a return appearance on Transmission.They cover:- Why treating a revenue forecast as a fixed cash flow is the most common mistake in BESS development.- How the listed fund model enabled GB BESS to scale.- Why splitting BESS revenues into ancillary, wholesale, and balancing mechanism streams is now a misleading framework.- How Harmony selects new markets in France and Germany: renewable penetration, grid-first site selection, and why any business case dependent on high ancillary revenues is a losing strategy.- What good optimizer relationships actually look like.Got follow-up questions? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst : https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast_apps&utm_medium=podcast&utm_id=paul_masonWatch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/a2--s956k-c⏱ CHAPTERS────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────0:00 Introduction1:16 What do BESS developers get wrong when building an IPP?3:25 Why full EPC contracts — and why they still hired project managers5:28 Duration strategy: the case for 2-hour batteries early7:00 The full BESS lifecycle — develop, build, operate, sell8:25 How Harmony raised capital through listed funds (and why it worked then)10:45 Why listed fund capital flowed out and what came next13:20 The Foresight asset sale: private vs. public valuation15:08 New markets: what Harmony looks for in France, Germany and beyond18:05 Market timing — should you enter early or wait for wholesale dynamics?20:12 Grid connection across Europe: where it works and where it doesn't22:33 Operating a live fleet: what drives performance once assets are running24:10 How to work with optimizers without burning the relationship26:30 BM trading trials with Tesla — what the data showed28:45 Is GB still exciting for Harmony, or is it old hat?30:20 Audience Q&A: colocation, revenue cannibalization, and market saturation32:35 If you ran European power: one thing to fix────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────Transmission is hosted by Ed Porter, Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy. New episodes every week.

Battery storage in Africa is one of the most misunderstood opportunities in global energy. Only 8% of the continent’s hydro power has been tapped. In Malawi, just 14% of the population is connected to the grid. Africa needs to add an estimated 100 GW of capacity in the next decade and the fastest way is with renewables and storage. Michael Cupit develops BESS projects in Malawi and Kenya, and he’s spent years working inside the gap between how these markets look from the outside and how they actually operate on the ground.In this episode of Transmission, Ed Porter sits down with Michael to break down the real risk picture in Sub-Saharan Africa: why mid-to-high-teen IRRs are the reality, how 20-year capacity payment contracts compare to merchant BESS in Europe, and what it actually takes to get a project from bare earth to operational - a journey that took eight years in Malawi.They cover:The two biggest misconceptions about doing business in AfricaHow South Africa, Malawi, and Kenya's grids differ and where batteries fit in eachThe role of DFIs, MIGA guarantees, and multilateral risk wrappers in making projects bankableChina's declining role in African infrastructure and what's replacing itThe O&M challenge: building operational capability from scratch in frontier marketsWhy winning the argument for renewables means making the commercial case - not just the climate oneWant to track battery storage capacity and market trends across Africa and beyond? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Free sign up: https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=podcast_apps&utm_medium=podcast&utm_id=michael_cupitTranscript available here: ────────────────────────────⏱ CHAPTERS0:00 Introduction1:08 The two biggest misconceptions about Africa4:30 IRRs, risk and contracted vs merchant returns8:00 Why Africa is skipping the fossil fuel grid model9:40 South Africa: load shedding, rooftop solar and grid constraints13:00 Battery use cases: the transmission line problem17:00 Malawi's grid: run-of-river hydro and the diesel spread19:00 Kenya: geothermal, 10 GW buildout and hyperscaler demand22:30 Rare earth mining and the electrification push in Malawi26:30 Financing: DFIs, MIGA, project finance and currency risk31:45 How long does it really take? The 8-year development journey33:10 China's role in African infrastructure - myth vs reality33:45 Engineering talent, local capacity and the O&M challenge36:55 What success looks like in 5 years────────────────────────────You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.

Biomethane currently supplies just 1% of UK gas demand. Could it reach 30% by 2050? Philipp Lukas, founder and CEO of Future Biogas, makes the case.The UK uses around 700 terawatt hours of gas every year. Even as electrification reduces that to 150–250 TWh by 2050, the gas that remains will be harder than ever to replace. Industrial heat, steel, glass, shipping, aviation.Biomethane, produced from organic waste and agricultural byproducts through anaerobic digestion, could supply 50–60 TWh of that demand. That's roughly 10 times what the UK produces today.In this episode of Transmission, Ed speaks with Philipp Lukas, CEO of Future Biogas. Philipp explains how the technology works, why the gas grid is the biggest battery in the country, and why turning it off would be a mistake. You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - Director EMEA & APAC at Modo Energy.Battery revenues, nodal spreads, trading strategies, Ko answers your most business-critical questions instantly, powered by Modo's IOSCO-aligned benchmark data. Try Ko for free now→ https://modoenergy.com/sign-up?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_id=stuart_pomeroyWatch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Y1pWt2-cKi4Chapters0:00 Introduction — the gas grid as a clean energy asset1:20 What everyone gets wrong about biogas2:00 How anaerobic digestion works (the basics)8:00 Ranking the top uses of biomethane10:00 The price gap: natural gas vs. biomethane today15:00 The future of the UK gas grid — 700 TWh to 200 TWh18:00 How much could biomethane supply by 2050?25:00 Why the gas grid won’t be switched off29:00 Dunkelflaute and the case for backup gas33:00 Feedstocks: sewage, food waste, animal manure, energy crops37:00 Biogas vs. ethanol: land use and the rotation argument40:00 How biogas plants actually work (reliability, engineering)43:00 The subsidy journey and the obligation model47:00 Closing

Eight in ten clean energy projects never make it through development. Not because of bad ideas, but because of how the process is run: sequential, analog, and fragmented across consultants, spreadsheets, and months of waiting.In this episode of Transmission, Alejandro speaks with Stuart Pomeroy from Paces .Stuart breaks down exactly why the traditional development model fails, what a parallel workflow looks like in practice, and how compressing land, environmental, interconnection, and permitting work into a single ecosystem can cut development timelines by more than half.You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Alejandro De Diego - US Market AnalystBattery revenues, nodal spreads, trading strategies, Ko answers your most business-critical questions instantly, powered by Modo's IOSCO-aligned benchmark data. Try Ko for free now→ https://modoenergy.com/sign-upFor more information on Paces, Head to their website → https://www.paces.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pacesai/Reach Stuart at [email protected]:00 Introduction: the hidden cost of delay in clean energy3:18 How clients use Paces day-to-day4:29 The data model: land, zoning, and interconnection layers5:25 The old sequential development model7:30 Cutting development time by 50%+9:02 Does Paces replace environmental consultants?11:05 Cost savings and pipeline conversion metrics13:47 Assessing permitting risk and policy uncertainty15:42 The Permitting Predictor tool17:17 Predicting landowner behaviour18:37 Hottest US regions for development activity27:42 Community sentiment and opposition risk31:22 Off-grid development and on-site generation34:10 Cost, complexity, and time: the off-grid advantage36:40 LMP data suite and revenue signals37:40 Getting projects bankable: track record and case studies39:31 What Paces are building next41:23 Contrarian takes: off-grid and permitting44:19 Closing

Tax insurance helps clean energy projects manage the risk of the IRS challenging their tax credits - like the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), Production Tax Credit (PTC), or bonus depreciation. Instead of carrying that uncertainty, developers and investors can transfer it to insurers, adding confidence to project financing.In this episode, Alejandro speaks with James Chenoweth Managing Director at Alliant Insurance Services, about how the market works and who’s using it. They also touch on the key areas of risk today, such as whether projects properly qualify for credits, potential recapture issues, and structuring above the project level, along with ongoing uncertainty around foreign ownership rules (FEOC), which are still awaiting clearer IRS guidance.You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Alejandro De Diego - US Market AnalystModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets. Want all the latest power market news? Sign up for our free Weekly Dispatch newsletter: https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch00:00:00 Introduction00:03:48 What is tax insurance?00:05:19 Who needs it and why?00:06:18 Is a project insurable?00:07:05 Insurable risk examples00:07:51 Which technologies lead demand?00:08:43 FEOC rules explained00:09:56 How tax insurance is priced00:10:57 Where it sits in the finance stack00:13:49 Who benefits from risk transfer?00:14:01 Impact on project returns00:14:32 The next big insurable wedge00:15:13 Why Texas leads the sector00:15:57 Houston: oil & gas to renewables00:17:14 War stories from the boom years00:18:32 Advice for developers00:19:07 Alliant's large-scale capabilities00:21:00 Contrarian take: tax policy is stabilising

How does a major renewable operator decide what gets built, where, and with whose capital? Lolita Carry, Director of Portfolio Strategy at Engie North America, explains how Engie manages a 20GW BESS, wind, and solar pipeline across ERCOT, PJM, MISO, and CAISO.In this episode Alejandro de Diego speaks with Lolita Carry about how one of the US's largest battery storage operators structures its investment decisions across multiple ISO markets.They take a look at how Engie steers a 20GW development pipeline across ERCOT, PJM, MISO, and CAISO; the capital recycling model behind Engie's 2.7GW asset sale to SES; what the Broad Reach Power acquisition brought to Engie's battery portfolio; how ancillary service saturation and energy price cannibalisation are reshaping BESS investment cases; and why Engie remains bullish on batteries despite tightening revenues.You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Alejandro De Diego - US Market AnalystModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets. Want all the latest power market news? Sign up for our free Weekly Dispatch newsletter: https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatchChapters:0:00 Introduction — Engie's 20GW pipeline and the portfolio challenge4:01 Capital allocation and key technologies in focus5:17 Priority ISO markets: ERCOT, PJM, MISO, CAISO6:04 What makes each market unique 9:27 BESS + solar development: from site to FID11:00 Risk assessment and project showstoppers12:32 Network upgrades and interconnection queue dynamics14:49 Raising and lowering the investment bar across markets18:01 Where Engie captures the most value: development vs. construction vs. operations18:59 The capital recycling model — Engie's 2.7GW SES deal explained20:20 How grid-scale batteries operate day to day21:45 BESS revenue decline: ancillary services, cannibalisation, and energy arbitrage22:34 Investment stance23:27 In-house energy management vs. external optimisers24:07 Advantages of scale vs. smaller developers29:10 Career advice for those entering the energy investment sector30:20 The Broad Reach Power acquisition — lessons and integration32:05 Final plug and contrarian view on the energy industry

The money for German battery storage exists. What's scarce is bankability - the clarity that lets a lender actually commit. What are banks really evaluating when they look at BESS projects in Germany and why regulatory uncertainty, grid connection risk, and the structure of offtake agreements can make or break the chances of getting debt across the line.In this conversation, Ed is joined by Florian Hock, Senior Director, Origination Energy Europe at NORD/LB to explore what separates a financeable BESS project from one that stalls.If you're developing, financing, or investing in battery storage in Germany or watching the market, this is the episode to understand what the financing layer actually looks like from the inside.0:00 Introduction0:57 Banks as advisors, not ATMs2:50 Financial & regulatory hurdles7:46 Defining bankability9:01 Regulatory risks to revenues10:25 Tolling contracts & capacity markets16:37 The grid fees debate19:03 Offtake 1.0 to 4.022:49 Germany vs UK valuations25:10 Navigating ancillary saturation27:49 The bankability framework33:33 Beyond capital: NIBC's role36:53 Grid connection delays38:14 Flexible connection agreements39:56 Lessons from the UK43:31 One change for Europe#BatteryStorage #EnergyFinance #GermanEnergyMarket #BESS #EnergyTransition

The AI boom has created an energy problem no one quite planned for. Every new data center needs power now - not in three years when the grid connection finally arrives. Developers are skipping the queue, installing on-site generation at a scale that would have seemed extraordinary five years ago.But speed to power isn't the only pressure. Data center operators are also staring down net zero commitments, sustainability departments that want decarbonisation, and an energy trilemma of cost, carbon, and resilience.In this episode Alejandro is joined by Alex Marshall, Group Business Development and Marketing Director at Clarke Energy. Alex explains why gas engines have become the bridging technology of choice for hyperscale data centers, what a 450 MW peaking station outside London actually looks like, and whether the engineering department and the sustainability team will ever agree.You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Alejandro De Diego - US Market AnalystModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets. Want all the latest power market news? Sign up for our free Weekly Dispatch newsletter: https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatchChapters- 0:00 — Introduction- 1:44 — Guest intro: Alex Marshall & Clarke Energy- 3:30 — Data centers and the shift to self-generation- 5:00 — The inflection point: Ireland to the US- 7:00 — Biggest project: 450 MW peaking station, London- 7:45 — Gas engines vs batteries: what fills the dunkelflaute gap- 9:00 — What US data centers actually buy- 10:20 — The net zero pathway for gas engines- 14:00 — Speed to power vs cost savings- 17:00 — Europe vs US: sustainability and energy culture- 18:00 — 45Y production tax credit: what's at stake- 22:10 — Clarke Energy's business model- 22:40 — Project highlights: Ireland, Indiana, Nigeria, Romania- 25:00 — The contrarian view: biogas & organic waste

Australia has built one of the world's most competitive battery storage markets — and it got there faster than almost anywhere else on the planet. What started as an experiment in South Australia in 2017 has grown into a mature, multi-gigawatt industry that is now redefining what grid-scale batteries can do.In this episode of Transmission, host Wendel Hortop sits down with Jérémie Yvon, Head of Energy Management at Neoen Australia, to explore how one of the country's largest renewable energy companies is navigating the rapidly evolving battery landscape across both the National Electricity Market (NEM) and the Western Australian Electricity Market (WEM). They cover the maturation of the Australian battery market, how Neoen structures battery revenue across two very different market designs, the rise of virtual batteries and firm renewable PPAs, long-duration storage investment, and why Jérémie believes battery oversupply is a credible - and under appreciated - risk.You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Wendel Hortop - Head of AustraliaModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets. Want all the latest power market news? Sign up for our free Weekly Dispatch newsletter:https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatchChapters0:00 Introduction — the hospital generator analogy1:45 Guest intro: Jérémie Yvon and Neoen Australia4:30 NEM vs WEM: how battery economics differ8:30 Hornsdale: from proof of concept to system services11:30 NEM design — volatility and five-minute trading14:00 WEM design — capacity market mechanics17:00 Revenue compression in ancillary services20:30 How Neoen builds optimisation capabilities in-house23:00 Battery + wind firming: delivering baseload renewables25:30 Virtual battery products explained29:00 Risk management for firm products32:00 Solar cannibalisation and price suppression38:00 Long-duration storage pipeline44:00 Rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) services47:00 Are batteries now the cheapest system service provider?50:00 Contrarian view: what the market is getting wrong51:39 Wrap-upModo Energy | modoenergy.com

The energy grid needs reliable, carbon-free power around the clock and geothermal might be the most underestimated solution on the table. A century of oil and gas expertise is now being repurposed to unlock heat sitting beneath our feet almost anywhere on Earth, and in doing so, it's also unlocking a new form of long-duration energy storage that requires no mountain, no reservoir, and no battery chemistry.In this episode, host Alejandro Diego sits down with Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geo Systems. Together they explore how Sage is moving beyond the geological constraints of conventional geothermal, what it takes to engineer a reservoir from scratch, how their underground pressure storage system works like an inverted pumped hydro plant, and why companies like Meta and the US Department of Defense are already signing on.You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Alejandro De Diego - US Market AnalystModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets. Want all the latest power market news? Sign up for our free Weekly Dispatch newsletter:https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch Chapters:00:00 Next-gen geothermal intro01:49 Cindy Taff background04:51 Geothermal opportunity07:19 Conventional geothermal limits08:39 How geothermal works10:38 Geothermal grid baseload11:44 US heat resource map13:13 Oil and gas drilling tech16:50 Discovering underground storage17:21 Earth Store technology18:07 Storage capacity explained19:35 Fast dispatch no degradation21:42 Pelton turbine explained23:47 Why viable now25:30 Energy storage business model27:12 Target customers28:27 Development obstacles29:52 Permitting process31:36 Meta 150MW deal33:41 5.5 terawatt potential36:17 Grid transformation impact37:49 What drives Cindy39:16 Direct heating use case40:30 Sage 2035 milestones42:20 Energy expansion contrarian view

How a battery gets optimised, from the moment a contract is signed to the millisecond a trade is placed, is still a black box for most people in the industry. Understanding that process is the difference between leaving money on the table and extracting maximum value from every asset.In this episode of Transmission, Ed Porter is joined by Fabrizio Fenu, Head of Business Development and Account Management at EDF Business and Wholesale Market Services. They pull back the curtain on how battery optimisation actually works at scale: how assets are treated fairly across a large portfolio, why merchant, floor and tolling contracts suit different investors, what role AI and algorithms play on a live trading desk, and why co-located solar and battery projects are harder to finance than they look. Chapters00:00 Intro: Optimising 5GW01:18 EDF's Battery Business01:47 5GW Portfolio Scale02:25 From 50kW to Commercial04:44 Inside the Trading Floor06:22 Winning Big Battery Contracts08:01 Debt and Revenue Certainty09:21 Merchant vs Floor vs Toll11:05 Optimiser Market Consolidation13:39 AI in Energy Trading16:10 Energy Careers Advice17:57 Fair Asset Treatment19:25 Day-Ahead and Ancillary Markets22:45 Enduring Auction Capability Explained25:51 Intraday Pricing and Indexing28:37 Perfect Battery Asset Quickfire31:45 Co-location Solar and Battery35:12 Battery Retrofitting Explained36:21 Connection Reform and Scale37:37 Simplify the Energy Industry

The energy grid fails in silence, long before the lights go out. The real problem is that most of the infrastructure keeping the grid alive is inspected too slowly, too infrequently, and with sensors that drift. We pour billions into building new power infrastructure, yet some of our biggest reliability gains might come from simply seeing existing assets more clearly. Quantum sensing promises exactly that, and it is closer to deployment than most people realise.In this conversation, Alex sits down with Emma Wong, Nuclear Principal Lead for Innovation, Quantum Technologies, and International Engagement at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), to explore how quantum sensing technology could transform grid reliability, reduce costly downtime at nuclear plants, and reshape how we think about energy security, from US utilities to communities in sub-Saharan Africa.Chapters00:00 Seeing Problems Early01:53 EPRI's Mission03:34 Into Nuclear Innovation06:27 Quantum Technologies Overview09:15 How Quantum Sensors Work12:33 No-Drift Sensing Advantage15:34 Real World Applications22:21 Cutting Nuclear Downtime25:20 Utility Pilot Programs26:15 Quantum Meets AI32:29 Key Stakeholders for Quantum35:37 Nuclear in a Renewable Grid41:43 Modern Reactor Safety46:43 G20 Nuclear Summit48:43 Energy Access in Africa53:22 Contrarian Energy Take#Nuclear #QuantumTechnology #EnergyTransition #CleanEnergy #FutureOfEnergy

New York legally committed to generating 70% of its electricity from renewables by 2030, and 100% carbon-free power by 2040. Nearly a decade later, the state is way behind schedule.In the first episode of Modo Energy Presents, our new series of video documentaries, we examine why building renewable energy in New York is so difficult - despite strong political support and ambitious targets.We explore:Transmission bottlenecks between upstate and downstate.The NYISO interconnection queue, now holding ~27 GW of projects.Why 90% of proposed projects never reach commercial operations.Interconnection costs that can account for 60% of total project CapEx.Offshore wind policy uncertainty.Capacity market dynamics that favour dispatchable generation.And why battery energy storage economics differ from ERCOT and California.Featuring Peter Berini, Director of Industry at Modo Energy, this episode compares New York’s “cluster study” interconnection model with ERCOT’s faster “connect and manage” approach - and asks whether structural reform is necessary to hit renewable targets.A Modo Energy production.Music licensed via Artlist.Stock footage licensed via Pond5 (via Everly).This documentary is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

The UK has a bold target to triple solar capacity within a single parliament, but the path from ambition to deployment is riddled with grid bottlenecks, workforce shortages, and revenue uncertainty.In this episode, Ed Porter sits down with Matt Black Managing Director of IG renewables and Chair of Solar Energy UK, to unpack the realities of delivering large-scale solar in Great Britain, from the aftermath of the connections queue reform to the future role of co-located batteries, the Warm Homes Plan, and what it actually takes to build a solar career in 2025.Chapters00:00:03 Connection Reform Overview00:07:30 Gate Two Shakeout00:09:00 Solar M&A Activity00:13:30 Strategic Energy Planning00:18:30 Co-Located Solar Storage00:22:00 60GW Delivery Challenge00:24:30 EPC Workforce Gap00:28:30 CFD PPA Merchant Revenue00:33:00 Balcony Solar Growth00:37:47 Warm Homes Plan00:45:00 Future Solar Deployment Shift#SolarEnergy #EnergyTransition #RenewableEnergy #CleanPower #UKEnergy

AI data center power demand is surging, solar prices are collapsing, and power markets like ERCOT are changing fast.Power trading strategies that worked just three years ago are now obsolete as markets transform in real-time.In this episode, Alex sits down with Terry Embury, Vice President of Trading and Market Operations at AES Clean Energy. The conversation explores the shift in electricity markets driven by solar proliferation, the evolving value proposition of battery storage across different markets, strategic lessons from decades of power trading experience, and how Terry's team is positioning themselves at the intersection of renewable energy and the data center boom that's driving unprecedented electricity demand growth.Chapters- 00:00 Clean Energy Timing Problem- 02:03 AES Company Overview- 04:45 Battery Storage California- 06:38 ERCOT Duck Curve- 08:15 Solar Trading Blocks- 09:45 Battery Revenue Streams- 12:21 CAISO vs ERCOT Batteries- 14:25 Market Volatility Dynamics- 15:30 Offtake Agreements Explained- 17:21 Belfield 500MW Battery- 18:45 Biggest Trade Ever- 21:00 Wind Solar Portfolio Management- 22:14 24/7 Clean Energy Matching- 25:11 Renewable Coverage Pricing- 26:07 Nuclear Energy Outlook- 28:21 SMR Timeline Concerns- 30:56 Nuclear Submarine Stories- 34:52 Transmission Constraint Challenges- 38:19 Data Center Generation Gap- 40:05 AI Growth Inflection Point- 42:00 Battery Market Opportunity- 44:39 AI Prompt Engineering Careers- 46:14 Trading Desk Culture Shift- 48:29 Managing Young Traders- 50:10 Head of Trading Daily Routine- 51:08 Worst Trading Day Story- 53:24 AES Future Announcements- 54:55 Contrarian Energy Market Views#AI #DataCenters #Solar #ERCOT #Batteries #CleanEnergy #Nuclear

The UK's electricity grid connection queue ballooned to over a Terawatt of projects - far more than the country will ever need, creating delays for renewable energy developers trying to bring solar, wind, and battery storage online. Connections reform was designed to clear this gridlock, but delays in the process are now pushing back critical infrastructure decisions that could make or break the UK's 2030 clean energy targets.In this episode, Ed Porter speaks with Ed Birkett, New Projects Director at Low Carbon.The conversation explores the current state of connections reform, the challenges facing renewable energy developers navigating the new grid offer system, the critical role of battery storage co-location with solar projects, and why substation siting decisions have become the new bottleneck for getting clean energy projects built on time.Chapters- 00:00 - Introduction and connections reform recap- 01:44 - The 1,000GW grid queue crisis- 02:04 - Transmission versus distribution network access differences- 03:21 - Gate one and gate two grid offers explained- 04:06 - Current status of gate two notifications- 05:28 - Connection date uncertainty and timeline delays- 07:39 - September deadline for final grid offers- 09:15 - Co-location of batteries with solar projects- 11:42 - Why Ofgem removed batteries from solar schemes- 14:58 - Network capacity constraints and upgrade costs- 17:25 - Active network management and curtailment solutions- 20:33 - Distribution versus transmission network capacity planning- 23:47 - Industry response to battery removal decisions- 26:19 - The business case for solar-battery portfolios- 29:51 - Substation siting challenges and planning delays- 32:44 - National Grid's role in new infrastructure- 35:16 - Summer solar generation and negative prices- 38:16 - How solar projects price curtailment risk- 40:10 - Next steps for connections reform implementation- 42:02 - Critical path issues for 2030 delivery- 43:24 - Contrarian view: using existing networks better

Power grids are shifting from reactive crisis management to proactive simulation and planning. Utilities can now rehearse extreme weather events, wildfire scenarios, and load surges before they happen, fundamentally changing how the grid stays reliable.Alejandro De Diego speaks with Marcus Johansson, Senior Executive - Wildfire Mitigation, Digital Transformation, Grid Modernization at Xcel Energy. The conversation explores how digital twins, virtual replicas of the physical grid, are enabling utilities to run simulations of weather events, wildfire scenarios, and increasing electricity demand. You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Alejandro De Deigo - VP of Insights.Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets. Want all the latest power market news? Sign up for our free Weekly Dispatch newsletter: https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatchChapters- 00:03 - Introduction- 01:45 - Xcel Energy Overview- 03:05 - Grid Modernization Role- 04:26 - Digital Twin Technology- 05:27 - Analytics vs Simulations- 06:15 - Wildfire Mitigation Strategies- 07:28 - Advanced Metering Infrastructure- 08:13 - Predictive Maintenance Applications- 08:42 - Data Integration Challenges- 10:29 - Distribution Management Systems- 13:17 - AI Load Forecasting- 14:20 - Peak Demand Management- 16:01 - Sustainability Journey- 16:28 - Energy Transition Motivation- 17:10 - Infrastructure Investment Plans- 18:22 - Transmission Focus Areas- 18:58 - Join Xcel Energy- 19:18 - Contrarian Industry Views- 20:11 - Service Orchestration Mindset- 20:44 - Build vs Buy- 21:25 - Future Generation Optimism

Transmission is getting a glow up and we want to hear from you what we can improve. Help us by filling in this short survey. https://form.typeform.com/to/kCdj85iK?typeform-source=www.linkedin.comGas prices spiked over 25% in a week as cold weather and short squeezes created chaos across European and US markets in January 2026.Ed Porter speaks with Seb Kennedy, founder of Energy Flux, about the recent gas market crisis. Kennedy explains the short squeeze mechanics in European markets, US production freeze-offs, Trump's LNG policies, Venezuela's gas flaring tragedy, and Pakistan's solar boom versus LNG commitments.You can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter - VP of Insights.Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets. Want all the latest power market news? Sign up for our free Weekly Dispatch newsletterChapters:00:00 - Introduction and January 2026 gas spike01:44 - Seb Kennedy's dual role journalist analyst04:26 - Understanding TTF and Henry Hub hubs05:37 - Investment fund positioning and short squeeze09:05 - Weather patterns driving European gas demand12:13 - Nuclear outages worsening European gas crisis14:44 - US gas price spike explained16:53 - Freeze-offs and US production challenges21:13 - LNG export constraints at Freeport facility25:20 - Trump administration's impact on LNG markets29:20 - Panama Canal and geopolitical LNG considerations30:47 - Venezuela's political upheaval and oil situation32:40 - Venezuela's massive gas flaring crisis35:20 - Pakistan's renewable boom versus LNG commitments42:53 - Key themes to watch in 202644:25 - Contrarian view on import dependence

Transmission is getting a glow up and we want to hear from you what we can improve. Help us by filling in this short survey. https://form.typeform.com/to/kCdj85iK?typeform-source=www.linkedin.comCan energy-only market design deliver both reliability and affordability as electricity grids face unprecedented transformation?In this episode, Alex speaks with Keith Collins, Vice President of Commercial Operations at ERCOT, about managing the unprecedented challenges facing Texas's electricity grid. As data centers and AI facilities flood into the state, ERCOT must balance explosive demand growth with affordability and reliability all within an energy-only market structure that's unique among major US grid operators.Chapters:00:00 ERCOT's role in Texas grid management01:09 Electricity market design and efficiency02:28 Winter Storm Uri and resource adequacy04:40 Texas data center boom explained06:39 Energy-only markets and price signals08:18 Grid resource adequacy challenges12:28 Dispatchable reliability reserve service ECRS18:45 Real-time energy and ancillary services22:15 765kV transmission expansion in Texas26:30 Residential demand response and virtual power plants31:45 Comparing ERCOT to other US markets36:27 Future grid technologies and storage growth40:05 Distributed battery systems and grid integration41:05 ERCOT market design frameworkYou can watch or listen to new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.Transmission is a Modo Energy production. Your host is Ed Porter, our VP of Insights.Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets. Want all the latest power market news? Sign up for our free Weekly Dispatch newsletter: https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch

While the industry often focuses on the cost of the hardware, the real challenge and value lies in successfully delivering, integrating, and operating these assets over their lifetime. As the market matures, the focus shifts from hardware procurement to the complexities of site integration, grid compliance, and ensuring long-term availability.In practice, microgrids are shaping how large-scale energy projects operate, helping to accelerate the use of grid-forming technology. Meanwhile, combining solar with battery storage is becoming an increasingly effective way to reduce wasted energy and improve project economics.In this conversation, Ed speaks with Lucie Kanius-Dujardin, Global Managing Director at NHOA, about what it really takes to deliver complex energy projects at scale. They discuss the realities of managing global supply chains, the push toward higher-capacity battery cells, and why the often-overlooked “brain” of the system - the Power Plant Controller - is just as important as the battery itself.Key topics discussed•Why the Power Plant Controller is critical to smooth commissioning and reliable performance - not just an add-on to the hardware.• How experience with microgrids has created an edge in deploying grid-forming technology on modern transmission networks.• Why more developers are pairing solar with storage to protect revenues and reduce grid constraints.• Whether a single global solution can work across very different local grid rules, from Scotland to Australia.• How integrators are keeping systems reliable as battery cells rapidly increase in size and capacity.About our guestLucie Kanius-Dujardin is the Global Managing Director of NHOA Energy, a global provider of turnkey battery energy storage solutions. With 15 years in the energy sector, she oversees the company's technology, delivery, and long-term asset service pillars across markets in Europe, Australia, and beyond.Connect with Lucie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucie-kanius-dujardin-47855521/?locale=en_USTo find out more about NHOA, head to their website: https://nhoa.energy/About Modo EnergyModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

The power grid is getting harder to run. There’s more wind and solar on the system, more sudden weather shocks, and less room for mistakes. How can the energy industry move past basic demand forecasts and focus on the tougher question: what’s the grid really going to need once you account for renewables?In this conversation, Alex is joined by Sean Kelly, CEO of Amperon. They explore how new weather models are offering better visibility for renewables and how the growing impact of data centers on electricity demand and grid planning is affecting markets, from Texas to Europe.Key topics discussed:• How forecasting accuracy can make or break performance during grid stress events.• Why forecasting 'net demand' is changing how renewable generation and storage is operated and traded.• How better forecasting is changing who wins (and loses) in power markets.• How data access and quality varies across ERCOT, NYISO, and European TSOs.• What rapid data center growth means for load, reliability, and energy security.About our guestSean Kelly is the Co-founder and CEO of Amperon, an AI-powered forecasting company built for the energy transition. Former energy trader with 20+ years of experience, including managing power portfolios and nuclear integration at EDF. Sean started Amperon after seeing firsthand how messy and limiting energy data can be and how much better decisions could be with the right tools. Find Sean on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-kelly-0792626/For more information on Amperon, head to their website: https://www.amperon.co/About Modo EnergyModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.#renewableenergy #AI #datacenter #EnergyStorage

Batteries are no longer just shifting energy from one time of day to another - they’re becoming critical grid infrastructure. But to unlock their full potential, we need smarter ways to manage billions of data points in real time, so storage can deliver everything from peak shaving to power quality and grid support and keep them operating safely, efficiently, and optimally.In this conversation, Ed is joined by Roger Hollies, Chief Technical Officer at Arenko. Over the conversation, they discuss how market governance needs to evolve, why it’s time to crack open the ‘black box’ of automated trading, and how ‘rules as code’ could be the key to unlocking a cleaner, cheaper energy future.Key topics discussed:How software can make ultra-complex battery assets manageable.Why batteries are overtaking fossil fuels in essential grid roles like frequency response, voltage control, and inertia.The data infrastructure required to handle seven billion datapoints a day across global energy portfolios.How open-source, “rules as code” market design could speed up innovation.What must regulators do to enforce fair markets and guarantee top-tier service delivery.About our guestRoger Hollies is the Chief Technology Officer at Arenko, where he leads the development of Arenko’s Nimbus platform, a software solution that currently manages 1.2 gigawatts of battery, solar, and wind assets across the UK and international markets. Connect with Roger on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-hollies-a0650012/For more information on Arenko, head to their website: https://arenko.group/About Modo EnergyModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatchNavigating the energy transition requires more than just building assets; it requires a deep understanding of how to price risk in a market that is fundamentally cannibalising itself as it grows.The transition to a renewables dominated energy system requires expert commercial strategy, especially in the volatile realm of battery storage and renewable certificate. Ed Porter is joined by Josh Brown - Operations Team Manager at SSE plc to explore what the front office operations of a major utility look like in practice and what navigating market saturation in batteries and the management of third-party assets using financing tools like tolls and Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).Key topics covered: •How utility origination teams manage the commercial complexity of battery assets in a fundamentally "self-cannibalizing" market?•What internal process are required to negotiate and approve complex, high-risk contracts such as tolls.• Is the energy sector prepared for the disruptive market shift from annual REGO matching to a 24/7 hourly certification system?• How commercial teams are structuring PPAs between developers and offtakers.• Whether Contracts for Difference (CFD) rules are creating significant exposure for large offtakers.About our guestJosh Brown is the Origination Team Manager at SSE, working within the Energy Markets division, managing market-facing power and gas positions for both SSE’s own extensive asset base and third-party clients. He specialises in navigating the complexities of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for solar, wind, and hydro, alongside structured battery optimisation products and the management of green certificate trading (including REGOs and ROCs) for the entire group. Connect with Josh here https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-brown-4a8b0336/?originalSubdomain=ukSSE is a leading clean energy utility with a major presence across Great Britain and Ireland. The group is active across the entire energy value chain, including renewable and thermal generation, electricity networks, and supply. SSE has contracted over 2 GW of batteries and 3 GW of CfD-backed assets in the last two years alone for more information, head to their website. https://www.sse.com/About Modo EnergyModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatchThe UK energy transition faces a critical bottleneck: a planning system crippled by risk aversion and procedural overload. In this episode, we explore the reality behind infrastructure delivery, from the 47 recommendations of the UK Prime Minister’s nuclear regulatory task force to the exploding demand for data centers. In this episode, Mustafa Latif-Aramesh (Partner and Parliamentary Agent at TLT ) joins Ed to examine how overlapping regulation and institutional duplication push developers toward compliance theatre rather than meaningful environmental protection, epitomised by Hinkley Point C’s infamous £700 million “fish disco.” The conversation explores what it would take to move the UK from a process-obsessed planning regime to one that rewards outcomes, accelerates delivery, and underpins the next wave of digital and energy infrastructure.Key topics covered:Why the UK’s infrastructure planning system prioritises administrative process over real environmental outcomes.How spending £700 million to protect a fraction of a salmon population reveals a breakdown in regulatory proportionality.Whether a single Nuclear Regulatory Commission could cut duplicative red tape and unlock faster decommissioning and new nuclear build.Is the Planning Inspectorate equipped to handle 500 proposed data centres alongside the wider energy transition?Can co-locating Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) with data centres address the sector’s “five nines” reliability challenge?About our guestMustafa Latif-Aramesh is a Partner at the law firm TLT, where he specialises in infrastructure planning across the entire energy spectrum from transmission lines and battery storage to wind, solar, and nuclear. He recently served on the Prime Minister’s Nuclear Regulatory Task Force, a specialist group established to diagnose why building nuclear capacity in Britain takes so long and to identify solutions for expediting deliveryWorking alongside industry leaders and economists, Mustafa helped author a report containing 47 recommendations designed to eliminate regulatory duplication and shift the system’s focus from administrative process to tangible outcomes. Beyond nuclear, he advises on the planning challenges facing the UK's rapidly expanding data center pipeline, advocating for a system that balances environmental standards with the need for critical infrastructure. You can follow his analysis on TLT’s infrastructure planning blog. Connect with Mustafa on Linkedin here. About Modo EnergyModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.