Transmission

Ed Porter, Modo Energy
  • 0.0 (0)
  • INVESTING
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The energy transition is reshaping power markets across the world and the stakes have never been higher. Transmission goes deep on battery energy storage, energy trading, project finance, and grid design - alongside wind, solar, and other clean technologies - with the people who are actually doing it. Hosted by Ed Porter, International Director at Modo Energy. New episodes every Tuesday.

  1. 4 DAYS AGO

    Why “Perfect” Battery Models Keep Failing in Reality - Harmony 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_mason Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/a2--s956k-c ⏱ CHAPTERS ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 0:00 Introduction 1:16 What do BESS developers get wrong when building an IPP? 3:25 Why full EPC contracts — and why they still hired project managers 5:28 Duration strategy: the case for 2-hour batteries early 7:00 The full BESS lifecycle — develop, build, operate, sell 8:25 How Harmony raised capital through listed funds (and why it worked then) 10:45 Why listed fund capital flowed out and what came next 13:20 The Foresight asset sale: private vs. public valuation 15:08 New markets: what Harmony looks for in France, Germany and beyond 18:05 Market timing — should you enter early or wait for wholesale dynamics? 20:12 Grid connection across Europe: where it works and where it doesn't 22:33 Operating a live fleet: what drives performance once assets are running 24:10 How to work with optimizers without burning the relationship 26:30 BM trading trials with Tesla — what the data showed 28:45 Is GB still exciting for Harmony, or is it old hat? 30:20 Audience Q&A: colocation, revenue cannibalization, and market saturation 32:35 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.

    33 min
  2. Why “Perfect” Battery Models Keep Failing in Reality - Harmony Energy

    4 DAYS AGO ·  VIDEO

    Why “Perfect” Battery Models Keep Failing in Reality - Harmony 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_mason Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/a2--s956k-c ⏱ CHAPTERS ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 0:00 Introduction 1:16 What do BESS developers get wrong when building an IPP? 3:25 Why full EPC contracts — and why they still hired project managers 5:28 Duration strategy: the case for 2-hour batteries early 7:00 The full BESS lifecycle — develop, build, operate, sell 8:25 How Harmony raised capital through listed funds (and why it worked then) 10:45 Why listed fund capital flowed out and what came next 13:20 The Foresight asset sale: private vs. public valuation 15:08 New markets: what Harmony looks for in France, Germany and beyond 18:05 Market timing — should you enter early or wait for wholesale dynamics? 20:12 Grid connection across Europe: where it works and where it doesn't 22:33 Operating a live fleet: what drives performance once assets are running 24:10 How to work with optimizers without burning the relationship 26:30 BM trading trials with Tesla — what the data showed 28:45 Is GB still exciting for Harmony, or is it old hat? 30:20 Audience Q&A: colocation, revenue cannibalization, and market saturation 32:35 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.

    33 min
  3. Africa's Battery Storage Opportunity - Energy Storage Africa

    6 DAYS AGO ·  VIDEO

    Africa's Battery Storage Opportunity - Energy Storage Africa

    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_cupit Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@modoenergy ──────────────────────────── ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 1:08 The two biggest misconceptions about Africa 4:30 IRRs, risk and contracted vs merchant returns 8:00 Why Africa is skipping the fossil fuel grid model 9:40 South Africa: load shedding, rooftop solar and grid constraints 13:00 Battery use cases: the transmission line problem 17:00 Malawi's grid: run-of-river hydro and the diesel spread 19:00 Kenya: geothermal, 10 GW buildout and hyperscaler demand 22:30 Rare earth mining and the electrification push in Malawi 26:30 Financing: DFIs, MIGA, project finance and currency risk 31:45 How long does it really take? The 8-year development journey 33:10 China's role in African infrastructure - myth vs reality 33:45 Engineering talent, local capacity and the O&M challenge 36:55 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.

    42 min

  4. 6 DAYS AGO

    Africa's Battery Storage Opportunity - Energy Storage Africa

    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_cupit Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@modoenergy ──────────────────────────── ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 1:08 The two biggest misconceptions about Africa 4:30 IRRs, risk and contracted vs merchant returns 8:00 Why Africa is skipping the fossil fuel grid model 9:40 South Africa: load shedding, rooftop solar and grid constraints 13:00 Battery use cases: the transmission line problem 17:00 Malawi's grid: run-of-river hydro and the diesel spread 19:00 Kenya: geothermal, 10 GW buildout and hyperscaler demand 22:30 Rare earth mining and the electrification push in Malawi 26:30 Financing: DFIs, MIGA, project finance and currency risk 31:45 How long does it really take? The 8-year development journey 33:10 China's role in African infrastructure - myth vs reality 33:45 Engineering talent, local capacity and the O&M challenge 36:55 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.

    42 min
  5. Biogas Could Power the Hardest Parts of Net Zero - Future Biogas

    26 MAR ·  VIDEO

    Biogas Could Power the Hardest Parts of Net Zero - Future Biogas

    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=podcast_apps&utm_medium=podcast&utm_id=philipp_lukas Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Y1pWt2-cKi4 Chapters 0:00 Introduction — the gas grid as a clean energy asset 1:20 What everyone gets wrong about biogas 2:00 How anaerobic digestion works (the basics) 8:00 Ranking the top uses of biomethane 10:00 The price gap: natural gas vs. biomethane today 15:00 The future of the UK gas grid — 700 TWh to 200 TWh 18:00 How much could biomethane supply by 2050? 25:00 Why the gas grid won’t be switched off 29:00 Dunkelflaute and the case for backup gas 33:00 Feedstocks: sewage, food waste, animal manure, energy crops 37:00 Biogas vs. ethanol: land use and the rotation argument 40:00 How biogas plants actually work (reliability, engineering) 43:00 The subsidy journey and the obligation model 47:00 Closing

    48 min

  6. 26 MAR

    Biogas Could Power the Hardest Parts of Net Zero - Future Biogas

    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=podcast_apps&utm_medium=podcast&utm_id=philipp_lukas Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Y1pWt2-cKi4 Chapters 0:00 Introduction — the gas grid as a clean energy asset 1:20 What everyone gets wrong about biogas 2:00 How anaerobic digestion works (the basics) 8:00 Ranking the top uses of biomethane 10:00 The price gap: natural gas vs. biomethane today 15:00 The future of the UK gas grid — 700 TWh to 200 TWh 18:00 How much could biomethane supply by 2050? 25:00 Why the gas grid won’t be switched off 29:00 Dunkelflaute and the case for backup gas 33:00 Feedstocks: sewage, food waste, animal manure, energy crops 37:00 Biogas vs. ethanol: land use and the rotation argument 40:00 How biogas plants actually work (reliability, engineering) 43:00 The subsidy journey and the obligation model 47:00 Closing

    48 min
  7. How to Cut Clean Energy Development Time in Half - Paces

    24 MAR ·  VIDEO

    How to Cut Clean Energy Development Time in Half - Paces

    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 Analyst 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 For more information on Paces, Head to their website → https://www.paces.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pacesai/ Reach Stuart at sales@paces.com 0:00 Introduction: the hidden cost of delay in clean energy 3:18 How clients use Paces day-to-day 4:29 The data model: land, zoning, and interconnection layers 5:25 The old sequential development model 7:30 Cutting development time by 50%+ 9:02 Does Paces replace environmental consultants? 11:05 Cost savings and pipeline conversion metrics 13:47 Assessing permitting risk and policy uncertainty 15:42 The Permitting Predictor tool 17:17 Predicting landowner behaviour 18:37 Hottest US regions for development activity 27:42 Community sentiment and opposition risk 31:22 Off-grid development and on-site generation 34:10 Cost, complexity, and time: the off-grid advantage 36:40 LMP data suite and revenue signals 37:40 Getting projects bankable: track record and case studies 39:31 What Paces are building next 41:23 Contrarian takes: off-grid and permitting 44:19 Closing

    45 min

  8. 24 MAR

    How to Cut Clean Energy Development Time in Half - Paces

    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 Analyst 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 For more information on Paces, Head to their website → https://www.paces.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pacesai/ Reach Stuart at sales@paces.com 0:00 Introduction: the hidden cost of delay in clean energy 3:18 How clients use Paces day-to-day 4:29 The data model: land, zoning, and interconnection layers 5:25 The old sequential development model 7:30 Cutting development time by 50%+ 9:02 Does Paces replace environmental consultants? 11:05 Cost savings and pipeline conversion metrics 13:47 Assessing permitting risk and policy uncertainty 15:42 The Permitting Predictor tool 17:17 Predicting landowner behaviour 18:37 Hottest US regions for development activity 27:42 Community sentiment and opposition risk 31:22 Off-grid development and on-site generation 34:10 Cost, complexity, and time: the off-grid advantage 36:40 LMP data suite and revenue signals 37:40 Getting projects bankable: track record and case studies 39:31 What Paces are building next 41:23 Contrarian takes: off-grid and permitting 44:19 Closing

    45 min
See All (401)

About

The energy transition is reshaping power markets across the world and the stakes have never been higher. Transmission goes deep on battery energy storage, energy trading, project finance, and grid design - alongside wind, solar, and other clean technologies - with the people who are actually doing it. Hosted by Ed Porter, International Director at Modo Energy. New episodes every Tuesday.

Information

  • Creator
    Ed Porter, Modo Energy
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    401
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025
  • Show Website
    Transmission

You Might Also Like