Transmission

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
4:38 Electrification and Household Energy Savings
9:55 Why UK Electricity Costs Four Times More Than Gas
12:57 Extreme Heat and the Case for Home Cooling
15:47 Solar, Batteries, and the Summer Cooling Demand Curve
17:34 Gas as a Strategic Reserve for Grid Security
22:43 The True Cost of Net Zero: £6.9 Trillion in Investment
25:20 Financing the Transition: Levies and Smoothing Costs
29:05 Why Demand Matters More Than Supply
31:03 Industrial Policy: Grangemouth, Port Talbot, and Manufacturing
35:27 Emma's Contrarian View: Cost and Climate as One Question
38:28 Closing Thoughts and Sign-Off
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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.
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 https://modoenergy.com/product/ko?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast_apps&utm_campaign=catherine_cleary&utm_content=ko_signup
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:13 Two myths about the grid connection queue
2:05 Queue order vs. connection order: nuclear vs. battery example
3:34 The 4.9MW de minimis threshold loophole
4:12 TMO4+ and connections reform: from design exercise to rollout
6:41 Gate two offer errors and technical query delays
9:05 Clean Power 2030 deliverability under connections reform
13:37 Engineering capacity for 30GW of battery storage
16:01 Bay sharing and hybrid project connections
17:49 CMP470: the oversubscribed technology commitment fee
22:04 Co-location, AC/DC coupling and TMO4+ shortcomings for hybrids
25:15 Fixing TMO4+ for hybrids: the parent/child concept
28:05 Data centre and demand connections vs. generation
33:39 Politics, policy and the connections queue
36:35 Contract delays: the new longest pole in the tent
39:16 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 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.
Want to dig deeper into battery cell chemistry and pricing trends? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:50 Saudi Arabia battery storage market update
02:16 UAE 24/7 renewable energy project
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
26:14 Battery procurement trends and container design innovation
29:39 Battery storage service, warranties and spare parts
30:54 Lessons from a decade in battery storage
32:09 Long duration energy storage and the Ofgem LDES scheme
34:48 How much renewable energy storage is enough?
38:18 Flow batteries, iron-air and CO2 energy storage
39:32 Sodium-ion's future in grid-scale battery storage