Is Flexibility Being Undervalued? EP. 313

This week on Energy Unplugged, Oliver Kerr, Managing Director for North America at Aurora Energy Research, is joined by Peter Lake, former Senior Director of Power, National Energy Dominance Council - The White House, for a candid fireside conversation recorded live at Aurora’s Energy Transition Forum New York.  For decades, US electricity demand was relatively predictable. That era is over.  AI and data centers are creating extraordinary new demand for power, colliding with infrastructure, regulation and investment models designed for a very different pace of growth. What was once largely an energy-sector challenge is increasingly becoming a question of economic competitiveness and national security.  Drawing on his experience leading the Texas power grid through the aftermath of Storm Uri and helping shape the federal power agenda from the White House, Peter argues that the US has reached an inflection point. The opportunity is enormous, but capturing it will require faster infrastructure delivery, greater flexibility and a willingness to rethink how power markets respond to growth.  The demand is arriving. The investment opportunity is clear. The question is whether America’s power system can move fast enough.  Main topics include:  Can America’s power system keep pace with the AI boom?  What can the US learn from Texas’s transformation after Storm Uri?  Who should pay for the infrastructure behind data centre growth?  When power markets stop delivering, how far should policymakers intervene? 

This week on Energy Unplugged, Oliver Kerr, Managing Director for North America at Aurora Energy Research, is joined by Peter Lake, former Senior Director of Power, National Energy Dominance Council - The White House, for a candid fireside conversation recorded live at Aurora’s Energy Transition Forum New York.  For decades, US electricity demand was relatively predictable. That era is over.  AI and data centers are creating extraordinary new demand for power, colliding with infrastructure, regulation and investment models designed for a very different pace of growth. What was once largely an energy-sector challenge is increasingly becoming a question of economic competitiveness and national security.  Drawing on his experience leading the Texas power grid through the aftermath of Storm Uri and helping shape the federal power agenda from the White House, Peter argues that the US has reached an inflection point. The opportunity is enormous, but capturing it will require faster infrastructure delivery, greater flexibility and a willingness to rethink how power markets respond to growth.  The demand is arriving. The investment opportunity is clear. The question is whether America’s power system can move fast enough.  Main topics include:  Can America’s power system keep pace with the AI boom?  What can the US learn from Texas’s transformation after Storm Uri?  Who should pay for the infrastructure behind data centre growth?  When power markets stop delivering, how far should policymakers intervene? 

Recorded live at Aurora’s Energy Transition Summit London 2025, this special episode of Energy Unplugged brings together Caroline Still, then Advisory Project Leader at Aurora Energy Research, Ben Guest, Managing Director, Energy Transition at Gresham House, Christopher Dalley, Director of Wholesale Market at EDF Energy, Graham Richmond, Partner at Dentons, and Rebecca Beresford, Director of Markets at NESO. Britain’s need for flexibility is accelerating. Flexible capacity is expected to nearly double over the next five years, but renewable deployment is moving even faster while traditional baseload generation declines. That creates a growing tension. Flexibility is becoming increasingly valuable to the power system, yet capturing that value as an investor remains far from straightforward. The panel examined whether the balancing needs of a renewable-rich system are still being underestimated, where the strongest opportunities are emerging, and what needs to change to close the gap between system value and investor returns. The system increasingly needs flexibility. The question is whether the market is rewarding it properly. Main topics include: Are we underestimating how much flexibility a renewable-rich system will need? Where could the biggest winners and losers emerge as flexibility scales? How should investors position for the next phase of the market? Can policy close the gap between system value and investor value?  

This week on Energy Unplugged, Richard Howard, Global Research Director at Aurora Energy Research, is joined by Sara Vaughan, Chair of Elexon.  For years, the energy transition was largely a race to build renewables. Now, a different challenge is emerging: how do you run a power system increasingly shaped by millions of smaller, flexible assets?  EVs, heat pumps, batteries and smart meters are creating enormous flexibility across the electricity system. Yet much of that potential remains difficult to see, value and coordinate. Without the right data and market rules, flexibility risks becoming a bottleneck rather than a solution.  At the heart of the discussion is a bigger question about how Britain's future power system should work. Does the system operator need ever greater visibility and control, or can better price signals allow consumers, suppliers and distributed assets to do more of the work themselves?  Britain already has much of the technology it needs. The next challenge is building a market capable of making millions of individual assets behave like one flexible system.  Main topics include:  Why the energy transition could eventually grind to a halt without more flexibility  How half-hourly settlement could transform the role of consumers in the power market  Does the system operator need to see everything, or can markets do more of the work?  Could unlocking flexibility save billions in future system costs? 

This week on Energy Unplugged, Richard Howard, Global Research Director at Aurora Energy Research, is joined by Sara Vaughan, Chair of Elexon.  For years, the energy transition was largely a race to build renewables. Now, a different challenge is emerging: how do you run a power system increasingly shaped by millions of smaller, flexible assets?  EVs, heat pumps, batteries and smart meters are creating enormous flexibility across the electricity system. Yet much of that potential remains difficult to see, value and coordinate. Without the right data and market rules, flexibility risks becoming a bottleneck rather than a solution.  At the heart of the discussion is a bigger question about how Britain's future power system should work. Does the system operator need ever greater visibility and control, or can better price signals allow consumers, suppliers and distributed assets to do more of the work themselves?  Britain already has much of the technology it needs. The next challenge is building a market capable of making millions of individual assets behave like one flexible system.  Main topics include:  Why the energy transition could eventually grind to a halt without more flexibility  How half-hourly settlement could transform the role of consumers in the power market  Does the system operator need to see everything, or can markets do more of the work?  Could unlocking flexibility save billions in future system costs? 

This week on Energy Unplugged, Emma Woodward, Principal in Aurora Energy Research’s GB & Ireland Advisory team and GB Flexible Energy Lead, is joined by Peter Kavanagh, CEO of Harmony Energy.  Britain has built one of Europe’s most mature battery markets, largely without subsidy. But success brings its own complications.  As batteries scale, the debate is shifting from whether the technology works to whether the market around it does. Merchant revenues remain volatile; projects can spend years waiting for grid and planning approvals, and batteries are still not always fully utilised when they could provide a cheaper alternative for balancing the system.  At the same time, support for long-duration storage raises a more uncomfortable question: could policy designed to accelerate storage end up distorting a market that has already proved it can compete?  For Peter, the message is increasingly simple: batteries have demonstrated their value. Now the challenge is removing the barriers that stop them delivering more of it.  Main topics include:  Why merchant risk may still offer greater upside than contracted certainty  How grid queues and planning delays are holding back battery deployment  Why batteries are still being overlooked in the balancing mechanism  Could subsidised long-duration storage undermine the existing market?  What Europe can learn from Britain’s battery experience   

This week on Energy Unplugged, Emma Woodward, Principal in Aurora Energy Research’s GB & Ireland Advisory team and GB Flexible Energy Lead, is joined by Peter Kavanagh, CEO of Harmony Energy.  Britain has built one of Europe’s most mature battery markets, largely without subsidy. But success brings its own complications.  As batteries scale, the debate is shifting from whether the technology works to whether the market around it does. Merchant revenues remain volatile; projects can spend years waiting for grid and planning approvals, and batteries are still not always fully utilised when they could provide a cheaper alternative for balancing the system.  At the same time, support for long-duration storage raises a more uncomfortable question: could policy designed to accelerate storage end up distorting a market that has already proved it can compete?  For Peter, the message is increasingly simple: batteries have demonstrated their value. Now the challenge is removing the barriers that stop them delivering more of it.  Main topics include:  Why merchant risk may still offer greater upside than contracted certainty  How grid queues and planning delays are holding back battery deployment  Why batteries are still being overlooked in the balancing mechanism  Could subsidised long-duration storage undermine the existing market?  What Europe can learn from Britain’s battery experience   

This week on Energy Unplugged, Jose Munoz, Market Lead for Spanish-speaking South America at Aurora Energy Research, and Melissa Carreño, Product Manager for Peru and Colombia, are joined by César Butrón, Chairman of the Board of COES, Peru's national system operator.  For two decades, Peru has benefited from some of the cheapest electricity in Latin America, supported by abundant low-cost gas from Camisea. But the conditions that shaped that success are beginning to change.  Demand is rising, cheap gas can no longer be taken for granted, and investors are struggling to finance new renewable projects despite strong resources and significant interest in the market. At the same time, policymakers face difficult decisions around gas infrastructure, battery storage, transmission expansion, and system reliability.  Drawing on decades of experience at the centre of Peru's power sector, César explains why the country is not facing a shortage of electricity, but a potential shortage of affordable electricity, and what that means for Peru's next phase of development.  Peru's challenge is no longer keeping the lights on. It's deciding what will power them next.  Main topics include:  Is Peru heading towards a shortage of cheap energy?  Why renewable projects are struggling to secure financing  The future of Camisea gas and Peru's energy security  What batteries, transmission and market reform will need to deliver 

This week on Energy Unplugged, Jose Munoz, Market Lead for Spanish-speaking South America at Aurora Energy Research, and Melissa Carreño, Product Manager for Peru and Colombia, are joined by César Butrón, Chairman of the Board of COES, Peru's national system operator.  For two decades, Peru has benefited from some of the cheapest electricity in Latin America, supported by abundant low-cost gas from Camisea. But the conditions that shaped that success are beginning to change.  Demand is rising, cheap gas can no longer be taken for granted, and investors are struggling to finance new renewable projects despite strong resources and significant interest in the market. At the same time, policymakers face difficult decisions around gas infrastructure, battery storage, transmission expansion, and system reliability.  Drawing on decades of experience at the centre of Peru's power sector, César explains why the country is not facing a shortage of electricity, but a potential shortage of affordable electricity, and what that means for Peru's next phase of development.  Peru's challenge is no longer keeping the lights on. It's deciding what will power them next.  Main topics include:  Is Peru heading towards a shortage of cheap energy?  Why renewable projects are struggling to secure financing  The future of Camisea gas and Peru's energy security  What batteries, transmission and market reform will need to deliver 

This week on Energy Unplugged, Richard Howard, Global Research Director at Aurora Energy Research, is joined by Michael Tobin CBE, one of the pioneers of the European data centre industry, former CEO of TelecityGroup and Non-Executive Director at Five Nines Group, alongside Sebastian Murphy, Director of Development & Innovation at Five Nines Group, to explore what it really takes to deliver data centre projects in Europe.  Driven by AI, cloud computing and digitalisation, data centres are becoming one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand worldwide. But as power constraints, permitting challenges and supply chain bottlenecks intensify, can Europe remain competitive in the global race to build the infrastructure that will underpin the next generation of AI?  Michael and Sebastian pull back the curtain on the realities of delivering data centres at scale, from securing scarce grid connections and navigating planning hurdles to managing supply chains, construction risk and ever-tightening sustainability requirements. They discuss why Europe's established data centre hubs are running out of room to grow, how regional markets are emerging as the next frontier for investment, and why access to power has become the industry's defining challenge.  The episode also examines the shift towards AI inference facilities, the rise of behind-the-meter power solutions, and whether Europe has the regulatory framework needed to compete with the US and China. Along the way, the guests share firsthand insights from the front line of data centre development and make the case for what needs to change if Europe is to remain a serious player in the global AI race.  You will learn:  Why power has become the industry's most valuable commodity.  How AI is reshaping Europe's data centre map.  What's really holding back data centre development.  What Europe needs to do to stay in the global AI race.