The Substation Podcast

Tom and Emma discuss options for improving locational signals on the electricity system that aren't Locational Marginal Pricing (LMP). Could reforms to network access, network charging, new markets and services send better signals to the market and reduce constraint costs? Could these options be easier to implement than LMP, and reduce potential investor uncertainty? And why can't we just build more wires?

In the third episode in the series about the role of demand in energy markets, Emma and Tom speak to Alex Schoch, global head of flexibility at Octopus Energy. They discuss how Demand Side Response will evolve to become intelligent demand. Read the Octopus blog about this at: https://octopus.energy/blog/intelligent-demand/ 

In the second in a series on the role of demand in energy, Tom and Emma talk about the arrangements in GB gas and electricity systems that are used when the market fails to balance supply and demand. What are the steps taken to avoid disconnecting demand? How is energy rationed when there isn't enough, and how do we return back to normal market operations afterwards?

In the first in a series about energy demand, Emma and Tom discuss how demand interacts with energy, covering energy efficiency, demand side response, demand destruction and rota disconnections. How should different kinds of demand be incentivised, now and in the future?

In the third episode on electricity market design, Tom and Emma ask "What is Time?". But they're not physicists, so they can't answer this question. But they can answer: What's a Settlement Period? What's an EFA Block? What do futures contracts represent? All this - and more - in the latest episode of the Substation Podcast. 

Locational Marginal Pricing seems to be high on the policy agenda after it featured heavily in the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements released recently by BEIS, Emma and Tom chat with Adam Bell from Stonehaven as they attempt to tease apart the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to market design, and discuss possible alternatives. 

How might a clean Energy Standard help the energy system deploy towards Net Zero in a cost effective way? A clean energy standard places obligations on consumers and suppliers to secure firm low carbon power. 

Emma and Tom catch up with George Day from the Energy Systems Catapult to talk through some of the implications of its design, its strengths and weaknesses and compare it to some other ideas like market splitting or locational marginal pricing (LMP).

You can read more about the proposals here: https://es.catapult.org.uk/report/rethinking-electricity-markets-the-case-for-emr-2/

Emma and Tom talk about the latest development in market design in GB, the Government's Review of the Electricity Market Arrangements - REMA. It will be a wide-ranging review, with an ambitious scope, considering all aspects of markets and mechanisms. They talk about historical experience with market reform in GB, possible interventions following REMA, tne importance of governance, and the importance of good acronyms. 

In the second in the series on electricity market design, Tom and Emma discuss the two different approaches to pricing and despatch in electricity markets –central despatch and self despatch. They talk about how we moved from a centralised 'pool' market to a de-centralised market in Great Britain and ask whether there could be a case to move back again.

In this episode, Tom and Emma dive into electricity market design. Marignal pricing is a key concept in electricity market design, with the most expensive unit needed to meet demand setting the price for all generators. 

They explain Marginal Pricing and ask whether in a world of rising gas prices and increasing proportions of renewables the marginal pricing principle is still fit for purpose. Could a two phase market work, with a separate 'green power pool' so that pricing is no longer set by expensive fuelled generation? How would this work, and what would the implications be?

In the third in the series on security of supply mechansims, Tom and Emma ask how they may need to change in the light of net zero. With a changing generation mix, market fundamentals and a climate, how will markets ensure that approrpiate signals are sent to firm, reliable (and clean) capacity to keep the lights on? 

In the second on a series on security of supply, Tom and Emma talk about market mechanisms for insuring security of supply; how signals are sent to market participants to help keep the lights on - capacity mechansims, pricing signals, ancillary services, price controls, and retirement homes for old power stations. They ask questions such as: What are the options for designing a capacity mechanism? What is an energy only market? How does network capacity support security of supply? 

We're joined by Ed Birkett to discuss how the electricity market could change to reflect the value of energy in different places, though the introduction of Locational Marginal Pricing (LMP). 

Have you ever wondered what a Distribution System Operator (DSO) is? Why is it different to the network owners (DNOs)? Why do we need flexibility in the distribution network, and why is it so important? 

Join Emma and Tom as they ask these questions, and more, and have them answered by distribution flexibility expert Randolph Brazier, Director of Innovation and Electricity Systems at the Energy Networks Association (ENA).

In the first episode in a series on Security of Supply, Emma and Tom talk about why it's so important to ensure security of supply in gas and electricity, and some of the key concepts related to it, including margins, types of interuption and value of lost load (VoLL). 

What could the future of data in energy look like? Tom presents differnet views of the future of energy data with the help of sci-fi references. 

Some of our imagined futures included the utopias:
1. Real time pricing as standard - locational real time pricing which is sufficiently clear enough to predict with some level of accuracy to allow operation and scheduling
2. Energy brokers for everyone - Digital assistants that can schedule your gadgets and buy power on your behalf, think an Alexa that has a trading account with the BSC
3. Energy system digital twins - digital twins that run in parallel with the real system allowing parties to simulate outcomes of real time events before they happen

And then we thought about the dystopias:
1. Push notification hell - customers and supplier relationships mediated through push notifications that drive undesirable behavior
2. Permanent stasis - nothing really changes, and there are few improvements.

Tom and Emma are joined by Tom Palmer for a Christmas-themed energy quiz. Play along! The questions are: 

How many kilometers can a Tesla car travel using the energy it would take to stream an hour of netflix?  In what year was natural gas first brought into the UK from our own gas fields?  What animals have solar farms been built in the shape of? What country has the oldest operational nuclear plant? What country has the largest estimated amount of lithium reserves?  What is the capacity of coal-fired generation in China in 2021?  What is the gross power output of the worlds northern most nuclear power plant in MW? When is peak electricity demand in GB on Christmas day?  What was the largest TV pick-up on Christmas day in GB? What renewable energy featured in the 2020 Coca-Cola ad?

In this (not so) short episode, Emma and Tom do a page turn on the November 2021 publication from National Grid on Net Zero Market Reform. Read along at: https://www.nationalgrideso.com/document/221776/download

In this episode, Tom and Emma talk about the role of data on the distribution system in GB. They cover the historical context, how this has changed over time, and recent and future initatives to improve data and visibility about distribution connected assets. 

Emma and Tom talk about the role of data in the energy retail market, touching on the nature of competition, the state of play for energy data today, and the scope for change to be brought about by regulatory change and disruptors in the market 

In this episode, Tom and Emma discuss the structure of the GB wholesale electricity market, and the role that data plays in it

In this short "Buzz Bar" episode, Emma and Tom give an initial reaction to the UK Government's October 2021 proposals for a new funding mechanism for new nuclear stations, the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model 

In this episode, we give initial thoughts on the British Government and other bodies' series of policy documents, released October 2021, covering its net zero strategy, the heat strategy, the Treasury's review of net zero, the response to the Carbon Climate Change Committee's report on progress to meet carbon budgets. 

We also wind Tom up, and let him go, on data in the GB transmission system - how it is used today, and how it could evolve in future. 

In the first episode of the Substation Podcast, Tom and Emma introduce themselves and the pod, cover the ongoing energy crisis, and introduce the topic of their first series, energy data. 

Get in touch at thesubstationpodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at @substationpod