Ed Porter

What happens when we produce too much power? Full documentary released on X

Spanish solar ready-to-build prices collapsed from €200,000 to €50,000 per megawatt in three years. Batteries moved opposite way to €100,000. youtube.com/watch?v=WdMwY5…

NEM batteries in the same region show a 1.4-3x revenue spread between top and bottom performers. Bidding strategy and execution account for millions annually. Whether you chase evening peak or preserve capacity for scarcity events makes the difference.

GB batteries saved consumers £188 million since December 2024. £141 million from wholesale price suppression, £47 million from balancing services. March 2026 showed constraints at work: reversed bids cost £3.3m but net monthly savings still hit £2.3m.

If you’re keen on ERCOT or how batteries are being used in one of the most advanced battery networks worldwide - follow Brandt ⬇️

@AukeHoekstra It’s a social media first! 🤝

@edcporter We agree 100% then.

Modo Energy have released a transparent battery revenue benchmark for Germany. 3 GW of BESS online can track what assets could earn across day-ahead, intraday, FCR, and aFRR.

Fun questions - thanks. I’m pro-zonal or nodal markets. Fundamentally I think Govt/System operators lack the ability to give good operational signals to markets in the same depth / reliability as markets. On inc-dec, yes all tech is being monitored on this. In a locational market the reality of how the DA/ID clears is closer to the delivered outcome. With national pricing, this is a mess today, leading to a bigger difference between DA clearing and real time dispatch signals. This is not being well solved in markets today and imo will limit GB’s rollout of batteries vs more locational markets in the long run as you have a higher risk of poor regulatory intervention.

@edcporter Are you proposing to do the same as in the UK where (as I understand) the behaviour of batteries is monitored to minimize inc-dec gaming? Do you also agree that nodal pricing would be the real solution?

Victoria's 4-hour battery revenues swing $400k/MW year-on-year based on weather, demand, and outages. Post-Yallourn West, volatility widens. The catch: historical conditions that drove swings may not repeat as renewable mix and interconnection shift.

If you want to stay in the loop on PJM, follow Aaron ⬇️

@PaulCRoberts Soon? There was a rumour that it was going to be at All Energy in Glasgow (it wasn’t), so it’s not too far off.

@edcporter When are you expecting the LDES shortlist announcement

Chris Stark joins me to talk through Clean Power 2030 and Mission Control - if you want to hear what's happening at the centre of Government's energy ambitions, this is one to tune into. Link below.

Good point - the general point is that we’re keen to have a competition and let the best tech win based on the parameters needed. On that particular project, so much depends on whether they can deliver it on time and operational. It’s a huge step up and that’s when things often break as you scale techs, I hope it goes well!

@edcporter Don’t forget 100 hour duration iron air. Google to deploy world’s largest 100 hour iron-air battery for Minnesota data centre 300 MW / 30 GWh pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/02/24/goo…

🎧 Transmission: UK transmission takes 8-10 years to build. Bringing two projects forward by a year saves £4 billion in constraint costs alone. youtube.com/watch?v=ViUjIp…

@Ember421 Yes, agree, it still requires the transmission to exist. Key point is that you could delay / reduce need for grid upgrades by effectively running the existing network at higher utilisation. Doesn’t get you away from the need to build more transmission, but could reduce the bill

@edcporter That’s trading off time transmission vs distance transmission… Which is something the transmission provider should do, but it’s still a transmission function…

Germany's TSOs propose a schedule freeze for batteries, blocking trading changes hours before delivery. Modo Energy models a 92% intraday revenue hit if batteries lose all continuous intraday access.

@scifi_charlie They’ll do those services anyway, essentially you are potentially losing a buffer to intraday volatility, which will be worse if you exclude batteries from responding. Likely could make gas some higher returns?

@edcporter Do German batteries just pivot to FCR/aFRR and day-ahead? If we can't trade intraday through gate closure, the spread capture business case collapses.