Back On The Grid

Nick Sorokin
  • 5.0 (3)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

How does the grid work? What are the barriers to making it cleaner? And who has the power to decide? Tune in each week to hear about tech, markets, and policy related to the U.S. electricity sector.

  1. 10/27/2025

    PJM Is Dead

    PJM is dead. Long live PJM. If you already know about capacity markets, skip to the secret ending at 26:15. Otherwise, hope you enjoy the episode! And to future me listening back - remember VRR curve for demand. Timestamps: 00:00-Intro02:00-Hello and Goodbye03:10-Fundamentals Start Here05:10-Restructuring the Market06:15-Basic NERC Reliability Standard07:15-Market Power and Price Caps10:00-Probability of Reliable Capacity (ICAP, ELCC, UCAP)12:00-Balancing payment with penalties13:00-Data Centers17:45-Renewables and Capacity18:00-Epilogue22:40-Complications in Responsibility24:00-PJM IS DEAD, Long Live PJM25:10-Capacity Markets are All Made Up26:15-Secret ending Suggested reading: Analysis of the 2026/2027 RPM Base Residual Auction (October, 2025) For reliability standards - look up EUE; LOLH; and LOLE all coming together for risk. Bidding rules - look up MOPR for old utilities that owned a lot of generation but had a ton of customer demand, so they underbid their capacity to distort the price and save money on consumer purchases. For accreditation - look up EFORd and ELCC will probably be changed in the future, so check out slice of day vs seasonal vs marginal and so on.

    35 min

  2. 05/08/2025

    Electricity Sector Changes since 2016

    Nuclear fusion, space-based solar, and other cool changes are on the horizon. But what has stayed the same over the past decade? This short reflection is the last episode of the show before I graduate with my masters focused on the electric power industry.  Timestamps: 0:00-Intro00:30-Nuclear Fusion vs SMRs01:30-Natural Hydrogen02:15-Solar Power From Space03:50-Selling Electricity Directly to your Neighbors05:30-AI challenges are new but also old07:30-Transmission08:15-Markets and Resilience09:15-Concluding Thoughts11:00-Secret Hidden Extras Let me know how the electricity sector has changed since you started following/working/studying the sector. Episode comments are enabled on Spotify or find me on Twitter or Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/backonthegrid.bsky.social Extras referenced at the end: My paper on a small part of PJM’s Capacity MarketBuilding Energy Paper

    12 min

  3. 10/26/2024

    EPSA Lawsuit and Demand Response Market Manipulation

    Is Demand Response a wholesale electricity sale? Not really under the FPA. But should it allowed to bid into wholesale markets? This week we'll explore EPSA, a supreme court case that decided federal authority over DR participating in wholesale electricity markets. Background to start, but for juicy parts on EPSA, skip to Scalia's dissent around 5 mins into this episode. Market manipulation discussed at 14 mins. Bigger summary at 16:30. Timestamps below. Topics covered include: legal no man's land for fed vs state authority, should DR receive full LMP, and how can companies manipulate their demand response payments? Also covers FERC Orders 719 and 745. Timestamps: 00:00-Intro 03:00-Wholesale Markets as Drug Dealers 04:30-Who is EPSA? 5:00-EPSA Dissent from Scalia 07:25-Legal Precedents 12:15-EPSA Summary 12:50-LMP minus G (doesn't make sense!) 14:00-DR Market Manipulation Example 16:30-Wholesale DR the last 20 Years Sources: Demand Response Market Manipulation Case in MISO (2024): ⁠https://www.utilitydive.com/news/nipsco-linde-ferc-miso-demand-response-settlement/703888/⁠ EPSA Supreme Court Case full PDF (2016) ⁠https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/577/14-840/case.pdf⁠ Shoutout to the random bus that drove by during the opening seconds of my intro

    19 min

  4. 10/09/2024

    Power Plant Retirements and Demand Response

    Should power plants be allowed to retire whenever they want? And what the heck is demand response--wholesale, retail, or something else? This episode will start exploring reliability must run (RMR) power plant designations and touch on the Sierra Club's lawsuit focused on two coal power plants receiving RMR payments while not having their supply included in PJM's capacity market. Also, is the grid just a big sandwich shop when it comes to demand response? Tune in for a day ahead market vs real time showdown. Sources: (1) https://www.utilitydive.com/news/pjm-reliability-must-run-rmr-capacity-auction-ferc-complaint/728398/ (2) https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/energy-primer-2020_0.pdf Timestamps: 00:30-Reliability Must Run (RMR) Power Plants 09:15-Demand Response (DR) 10:30-Electricity Markets as a sandwich shop 15:00-Futures vs Spot Market for DR

    17 min

  5. 09/25/2024

    Grid Scale Battery Storage

    If the grid was Goldilocks, what type of battery would it want? This episode is a bit denser than usual and explores some basic differences between flow, iron-air, and lithium ion batteries; plus the basics of how batteries participate in markets. Also covers some technical stuff towards the end. Listen at your own peril--you may become a flow stan. Timestamps: 00:00-Intro 01:00-What Type of Energy Storage is Best? 02:23-Long Duration Storage vs Short Duration Storage 04:00-Flow Batteries 05:50-Issues with Flow Batteries 08:00-What is Grid Scale Storage Used For? 10:25-How are batteries regulated? Who knows! 11:30-Lithium Ion Batteries for the Grid 12:31-Technical Notes 15:00-Salton Sea 15:50-Future BESS References: CAISO Report on Battery Storage Market Participation https://www.caiso.com/documents/2023-special-report-on-battery-storage-jul-16-2024.pdf Redox Flow vs Li-ion Batteries https://energy.sandia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/6_Wittman_Reed_SNL_WIPSC_Session5_6-23-21.pdf 2024 EIA Update On Grid-Scale Battery Use https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=62405 Nanoparticle Flow Batteries - https://spectrum.ieee.org/flow-battery-2666672335 Form Energy Specs - https://formenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Form-Energy-Navigating-the-Pacific-Northwest-Energy-Challenges-06.26.2024-1.pdf

    17 min

  6. 09/16/2024

    Oil for Electric Power

    When someone mentions oil, you probably think of cars, ships, planes, or plastic. But what about electric power? This episode explores where and why oil is used for electricity in the United States through a few case studies and will get you up to speed on some basic industry terms. Timestamps: 0:00-Intro 01:00-What States Use Oil for Electric Power? 04:30-Petroleum Basics 07:00-Crude Oil Characteristics 08:15-Oil for Electric Power 09:15-New York Oil for Electricity 10:00-Issues with Oil for Power 12:00-EIA Data Trends Sources: Fossil Fuel Consumption for Electricity Generation by Year, Industry Type and State (EIA-906, EIA-920, and EIA-923) - https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/state/ Miranda Wilson, E&E News, New England clean energy goals slam into oil reality (January 18, 2023) PSE Health Energy, MA Peaker Power Plants (May, 2020) Potomac Economics, 2023 State of the Market Report for the New York ISO Markets, (May 2024) New York City Council, Council Votes to Expedite Phasing Out Fuel Oil Grade No. 4 in Boilers Across the City, Resulting in Cleaner Air, Especially in Environmental Justice Communities (February 2023) EIA, ⁠Heating oil explained⁠

    15 min

  7. 09/08/2024

    Energy System Lock-In

    If someone asked you why it’s so hard to decarbonize the electricity sector, what would you say? Maybe you think we haven’t found the right combination of technologies yet. Maybe you’d argue that we lack the political will to change. Or maybe it’s the economic or social sides of the equation. How about all of the above? This episodes explores several influential papers on technological lock-in, with a special focus on nuclear, cars, learning by doing, and network effects. Works referenced: Gregory Unruh, Understanding carbon lock-in (2000) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421500000707 Robin Cowen, Nuclear Power Reactors: A Study in Technological Lock-in (1990) https://www.jstor.org/stable/2122817 Richard Perkins, Technological “lock-in” (2003) https://www.isecoeco.org/pdf/techlkin.pdf Arrow, The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing, 1962: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2295952 Terraform Industries - https://terraformindustries.com/ NET Power - https://netpower.com/ Timestamps: 00:00-Intro 01:00-Technological Lock-in 01:30-Carbon Lock-in (Gregory Unruh, 2000) 02:20-Natural Gas Concerns 03:00-Terraform Industries & Net Power 03:35-Nuclear PWR Lock-In (Robin Cowen, 1990) 05:20-Early Nuclear Policy and Subsidy Help 07:00-Learning by Doing for Nuclear 07:20-Steam Cars vs Gas vs Electric 08:30-HORSES 09:14-Network Effects (Perkins, 2003) 10:25-Learning by Doing (Kenneth Arrow, 1962) 14:00-Future of Energy Systems 16:00-Lock In

    16 min

  8. 09/04/2024

    U.S. Electricity Markets Overview

    This podcast is a primer on electricity markets in the United States for people who don’t have time to read 200 page reports (though you totally should). We'll start with what's on your bill, look at wholesale auctions for electricity + bilateral trading, and wrap with some market issues like fraud, supply chains, and stranded assets. Recommended reading to add wrinkles to your brain: https://www.monitoringanalytics.com/reports/PJM_State_of_the_Market/2024/2024q2-som-pjm-sec3.pdf Timestamps: 00:00-Intro 00:38-Structure of the episode 01:10-T&D Part of Bill 01:45-Energy Part of Your Bill 02:20-Who Sells Power? 03:50-Example of a Bilateral Trade 05:30-Wholesale Electricity Auctions: ISO/RTOs 07:50-Nodal Pricing 08:30-Market Power Example 09:30-Market Fraud 10:46-Public Utility Commissions 12:17-Power Capacity & Ancillary Service Markets 13:28-Power vs Energy; MW vs MWh 14:00-Issues with Current Markets 16:00-Rider Chargers on Your Bill 18:00-Rooftop Solar vs Average Market Prices 20:00-Future Reading: INCs, DECs, UTCs, FTRs

    22 min
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About

How does the grid work? What are the barriers to making it cleaner? And who has the power to decide? Tune in each week to hear about tech, markets, and policy related to the U.S. electricity sector.

Information

  • Creator
    Nick Sorokin
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Nick Sorokin
  • Show Website
    Back On The Grid