Transmission is the podcast for energy professionals navigating the global shift to a low-carbon power system. Hosted by Ed Porter, Transmission goes deep on battery storage markets, power market dynamics, and the commercial forces shaping the energy transition - with the people at the centre of it.
Every week, we sit down with the CEOs, heads of trading desks, government advisors, policy architects, and leading practitioners driving change across the industry.
These are practitioner conversations - focused on how markets actually work, where the real opportunities and risks lie, and what the data is telling us.
We cover clean energy investing, capacity markets, balancing mechanism participation, and the evolving regulatory environment that shapes returns across geographies. Our coverage spans Great Britain, Germany, Spain, and the broader European energy transition, with regular episodes dedicated to the specific dynamics of each market.
Transmission tracks the inflection points that matter: when markets shift, where capital is flowing, and what experienced operators are doing next.
We also cover power markets more broadly - interconnectors, flexibility markets, grid infrastructure, and the trading strategies that sophisticated players use to extract value in increasingly complex systems.
Who listens: Transmission is built for people who work in energy - analysts, investors, developers, traders, asset managers, and policy professionals at every stage of their careers.
If you're entering the industry or building your understanding of how battery storage and power markets actually work, Transmission is one of the fastest ways to get up to speed - directly from the people shaping them.
About Modo Energy: Transmission is produced by Modo Energy, a B2B SaaS platform that helps renewable energy companies, funds, utilities, and banks manage and value their energy assets. Specializing in batteries and provides data, analytics, and forecasting to help customers understand the financial performance of their energy assets.
The Modo Energy Terminal is the one-stop shop for teams trying to understand the commercial case for grid-scale battery energy storage - bringing together trusted indices, customizable benchmarks, independent revenue forecasts, in-depth written analysis, and much more.
Guided by the principles of transparency and usability, Modo Energy’s Terminal provides owners, operators, developers and financiers with a complete view of the landscape for storage - past, present, and future - so that users can make informed, bankable decisions about their assets.
Hundreds of organizations rely on Modo’s tools and insights to navigate market trends, optimize investment strategies, and stay ahead of industry shifts. As the storage space continues to evolve, Modo is leading the way - helping businesses unlock the full value of their assets and make smarter decisions in a net-zero future.
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Poland's Battery Market is Skipping the Pilot Phase - Entrix
Episode 1
Tuesday, September 29, 2026 • Duration 33:51
Poland's battery storage market is skipping the pilot phase, with its first projects starting at 200MW, a size it took Germany five years to reach. And because of the way Poland runs its grid, two identical batteries in different locations can earn very different amounts. With over 2GW of batteries expected on the grid by 2028, the market is about to change fast.
Ed Porter is joined by Aleksandra Radwańska, Country Lead Poland at Entrix, and Jan Kłoczko at Entrix, to unpack what it takes to optimise batteries in a market scaling this fast.
They cover:
How two identical batteries in different parts of Poland can earn very different amounts, and why each needs its own scorecard.
Why getting a new battery approved to support Poland's grid can take up to two years, while everyone is still learning the rules.
How over 2GW of batteries expected by 2028, in a country that peaks at around 25GW, will change the way power is traded in Poland.
What battery owners are choosing between: guaranteed-income deals that help secure loans, or betting on the market.
Why Poland's single national electricity price is coming under strain as the grid gets more congested.
0:00 Poland's battery storage market: straight to 200MW
1:17 Central dispatch and location-based battery revenues
4:11 Credible battery optimisers vs good pitch decks
6:46 Benchmarking optimiser performance per asset
9:08 Ancillary services prequalification in Poland
12:47 Starting with 100-200MW batteries: no sandbox
13:19 Intraday liquidity and the TSO balancing crackdown
15:27 Wholesale trading patterns and Poland's duck curve
18:44 Over 2GW of batteries by 2028
20:11 Route to market: floors, tolls and merchant
24:01 Flexible and asymmetric grid connections
27:29 Lessons from bringing large batteries online
28:48 Contrarian view: one national price, a constrained grid
30:47 Contrarian view: collaboration over complaint
The Future Of The Gas Network - Cadent
Episode 1
Tuesday, September 22, 2026 • Duration 36:02
As the electrification of heat increases and technologies like heat pump adoption grows, it's tempting to assume the gas network can simply be wound down street by street, in line with falling demand. But it’s not as simple as this: network topology, not customer count, decides when decommissioning is actually viable, and the UK gas network is nowhere close to that point today.
Sam Wilson, Director of Energy System Operations at Cadent, joins the podcast to explain the engineering reality behind that constraint — and how things like pressure control, storage, and gas injection all factor into it.
They cover:
Why network topology, not customer count, decides when decommissioning is actually viable
How gas goes from completely odourless at transmission pressure to detectable on your street.
What it takes to step pressure down from around 90 bar in the transmission system, through off-takes and above ground installations, to roughly 30 millibars at a domestic appliance.
How line packing turns the pipe network itself into short-duration storage, with operators raising or lowering in-pipe pressure to absorb daily demand swings.
What's actually limiting how much biomethane and hydrogen can go into the network today, and why hydrogen can be blended in without any changes needed to downstream appliances.
Want to know how heat electrification could reshape power demand in GB? Ask Ko - Modo Energy’s AI energy analyst - sign up for free here
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:
What's Really Holding The Grid Together - Fluence
Episode 1
Tuesday, September 15, 2026 • Duration 01:03:10
The grid is swapping spinning turbines for grid forming inverters, and something is getting lost in the trade. A turbine could always throw 5 times its normal output to clear a fault, for free, using nothing but physics. Inverters can only manage around 1.5 times theirs. So if renewables are going to take over, where does that missing strength come from instead?
Ben Braun is Chief Engineer at Fluence, where he's spent his career working on power electronics - from batteries to the grid. In this episode, he breaks down grid forming vs grid following inverters for everyone without an electrical engineering degree.
They cover:
- Why "grid forming is slower" than grid following - and why that slower response is actually what makes it more stable in a fault.
- Why NESO in GB and AEMO in Australia are chasing completely different things from grid forming batteries.
- Why grid inertia disappears as spinning turbines retire, and how a sudden burst of power from a battery can fake it.
- Why volatile AI training loads are turning data centres into miniature grids of their own, and how batteries are used to stop that volatility ever reaching the wider network.
- Why Ben's biggest concern isn't too little fault current on the grid, but too much of it - and why that could force a wave of grid upgrades most people haven't priced in
Want to see which grids are paying for inertia and fault current today, or where the next stability tenders are opening? Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, is built for exactly these questions. Free sign up: https://modoenergy.com/product/ko?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=ben_braun&utm_content=ko_signup
📄 Related article: [companion article link]
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⏱ CHAPTERS
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00:00 – Why the Grid Needs More Than Power Flow
01:31 – Grid Forming Inverters: Common Misconceptions
How AI Could Cut Energy Trading Costs - Tem Energy
Episode 1
Tuesday, September 8, 2026 • Duration 43:10
Joe McDonald says close to 30% of a business power bill can go to trading desks, balancing costs and wholesale market fees most customers never see. Behind suppliers can sit five or six more intermediaries, each taking a cut before the energy ever arrives. Is that a market working as designed, or one taking more than it should?
Joe is Founder & CEO of Tem Energy, and has spent over a decade inside the middle of the energy market, watching where the money actually goes on its way to the meter. He's now building the AI infrastructure to strip those middlemen out of the chain, with Tem already transacting over £1 billion a year across thousands of UK businesses, backed by a fresh Series B to fund expansion into Texas and Australia.
They cover:
Why up to 30% of a business energy bill can go to trading desks, balancing costs and wholesale fees layered behind the supplier.
How forward market contracts fix energy prices for months or years and why "shape matching" between generators and buyers creates a shadow market worth billions.
The P442 grid charging exemption, and why a change this small took two years to push through.
Why Joe believes Tem's AI agents could remove around 90% of labor costs in energy transactions, and why he sees that trade-off as necessary.
Tem Energy's plan after its Series B - expanding into Texas and Australia before Europe and the case for energy AI becoming the UK's next trillion-dollar industry.
Want to dig deeper into where that 30% actually goes, or how forward contracts are priced? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, for free sign up also gets you trial access to Modo Energy's research.
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 Introduction
1:24 The Real Cost Layers Behind A Business Energy Bill
3:17 The Mechanics Of Forward Energy Contracts
5:25 Shape Matching Explained
What Happens When Every Battery Market Gets Crowded? - Centrica Energy
Episode 1
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 • Duration 43:20
Battery storage went from an unproven bet to one of Europe's fastest-growing energy assets in a but the exceptional returns early investors saw have already faded as more batteries crowd the market. The real question today isn't whether a battery can make money, it's whether an optimiser can keep making money from it, market after market, year after year.
In this conversation, Brecht Dierckx, Director of Physical Asset Trading & Optimisation at Centrica, joins Ed to unpack what actually separates a good battery optimiser from an average one, and why pricing, contracts and risk are becoming as important as trading itself.
They cover:
- Why the exceptional early returns 2017–2018 battery investors saw are gone for good, and what actually lets some optimisers keep repeating strong performance while others can't
- How battery revenue has shifted over time — from grid-support services, to adjusting trades as markets move, to buying and selling across multiple markets at once — and why each edge shrinks as more batteries chase it
- Why pricing a battery deal is nothing like pricing a financial instrument, and how modelling different future scenarios (rather than simple averages) reveals the real value of holding a diversified portfolio
- What project developers are actually asking optimisers for now — performance guarantees, profit shares, protection from regulatory changes — and why some of those guarantees aren't realistically workable
- Which European markets look most promising for battery growth next, and how emerging grid restrictions could shape how much value new assets are able to capture
Want to know how flexible connection agreements or grid restrictions are changing your battery's revenue forecast? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst
Chapters:
0:00 – Battery Storage Returns Are Saturating
Can Britain Afford to Slow Down on Net Zero? - The CCC
Episode 1
Tuesday, August 25, 2026 • Duration 39:18
This summer, Britain recorded its first ever four consecutive months of 35°C+ heat and according to the Climate Change Committee, the UK isn't ready for it, physically or emotionally. As political pressure mounts in the net zero debate over whether Britain should slow its climate transition, the CCC's chief executive makes the case that affordability and climate action are the same fight, not competing priorities.
Ed sits down with Emma Pinchbeck, Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), to find out what preparing for a hotter Britain actually looks like, and why extreme heat has quietly overtaken flooding as the institution's top adaptation concern.
They cover:
Why extreme heat is now one of the CCC's top adaptation recommendations, with up to 92% of UK homes at risk of overheating by 2050.
How solar and battery storage naturally track cooling demand, and why that strengthens the case for air conditioning becoming standard in UK homes.
Emma’s case for accelerating rather than easing off decarbonisation, including data showing EV- and solar-equipped homes can save up to £1,900 a year on energy costs.
Why UK electricity is priced roughly 4x higher than gas, well above the 2:1 ratio in countries that have successfully rolled out heat pumps.
Why Emma argues cost-of-living and climate policy are "the same question," not competing priorities.
Want to know why UK electricity prices are 4x higher than gas, and how that compares to countries where heat pumps have taken off? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI Analyst, for the market-by-market breakdown. Try Ko for free
Transcript available here:
Chapters:
0:00 Britain's Record-Breaking Heat
1:16 The CCC's Real Role vs. Government Policy
2:55 The Net Zero Speed Debate: Science and Political Pressure
How Poland Is Building a Renewable Power System - R.Power Renewables
Episode 1
Tuesday, August 18, 2026 • Duration 30:06
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 pace
Want 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.
Is Britain's Grid Ready for Clean Power 2030? - Roadnight Taylor
Episode 1
Tuesday, August 11, 2026 • Duration 43:50
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.
Why Batteries Are Changing Faster Than the Industry Expected - Marek Kubik
Episode 1
Tuesday, August 4, 2026 • Duration 42:53
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 cover
Why 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.
03:18 Solar plus battery storage economics explained
05:10 Battery storage prices: are we near the floor?
06:38 Lithium carbonate prices and battery raw material costs
08:22 Battery storage cost per kilowatt-hour explained
11:07 China battery prices and the race to $50/kWh
13:36 Sodium-ion batteries vs LFP: the next chemistry shift
21:18 CATL market share and battery supply chain competition
Related Shows Based on Content Similarities
Discover shows related to Transmission, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
3:03 From gas field to home boiler: the full journey
4:33 UK's four gas distribution networks explained
5:15 Transmission pressure: 90 bar and above
6:25 Line packing - storing gas inside the pipes
7:55 Industrial vs domestic gas pressure needs
12:34 Replacing 100-year-old cast iron gas pipes
13:56 Biomethane in the gas network
17:15 Hydrogen blending: how much the network can take
21:22 Getting hydrogen to industrial gas users
23:18 Electrification vs the gas network's engineering reality
24:26 What happens when homes remove their gas connection
25:46 Why decommissioning the gas network isn't linear
31:57 Sam Wilson's contrarian take on the energy transition
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04:51 – Grid Forming vs Grid Following Speed Explained
07:16 – Bathtub Analogy for Grid Forming Batteries
11:44 – NESO Stability Pathfinder and Global Grid Forming Numbers
14:11 – AEMO's System Strength Charge Explained
16:28 – Inertia and Short Circuit Level for Beginners
17:10 – Grid Inertia Explained With Lorries and Cyclists
21:44 – How Batteries Replicate Grid Inertia
23:03 – Fault Current Basics: Fuses and Circuit Breakers
26:16 – Fault Current Math and Retiring Turbines
28:52 – Voltage Stiffness and System Strength
39:07 – Reactive Power Explained With a Circus Tent
42:23 – Black Start and Grid Restoration Explained
46:57 – Grid Forming Inverters for Data Centres
53:30 – Contrarian View: Too Much Fault Current
61:18 – Grid Upgrades for High Fault Current Levels
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.
🔔 Subscribe for more energy market analysis: / @modoenergy
🔗 Follow Modo Energy:
→ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/modo-energy
→ Twitter/X: x.com/modoenergy
6:35 The Shadow Market Behind The Grid
11:12 Pricing And Settling Energy Trades With AI
26:46 The P442 Grid Charging Exemption
36:29 The Slow Pace Of Energy Market Regulation
37:37 The Same Problem Across Global Energy Markets
38:36 Cutting Utility Operating Costs With AI
39:22 Comparing This Model To Octopus And Kraken
40:40 Joe McDonald's Contrarian View On Energy Markets
