Energy Unplugged by Aurora

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