This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re delighted to welcome Nawal Saini, Managing Partner in Brookfield’s Renewable Power & Transition Group. He joins Dan Monzani, Aurora’s Managing Director for the UK & Ireland and India, alongside Debabrata Ghosh, Aurora’s Head of India, for a deep dive into how renewable deployment and transition investment are accelerating in India and other emerging markets.

Nawal leads Brookfield’s renewable and transition business across these regions, drawing on extensive experience in energy and infrastructure investment at CDPQ, JP Morgan, and Jacob Ballas, as well as banking roles with ABN Amro Bank and SBI Capital Markets. His perspective combines large-scale capital allocation, platform building, and first-hand insight into navigating policy, regulatory, and market complexity in fast-growing economies.

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This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re delighted to welcome Karol Wolański, Head of Flexibility & Aggregation at Respect Energy, and Roch Baranowski, Chief Strategy Officer at Respect Energy Holding. They join Piotr Dobrzynski, Aurora's Market Lead for Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia, to discuss how Poland and the wider CEE power markets are evolving in response to renewable growth, regulatory reforms, and market volatility.

Karol brings deep expertise in balancing markets and cross-border power exchange, leading the development of flexibility and aggregation services for renewables and storage assets. Roch oversees Respect Energy’s growth strategy, combining commercial and environmental value creation, with extensive experience in energy transition, consulting, and sustainable innovation.

You will learn about:

• How flexibility and balancing services are reshaping operating models and creating new revenue streams for renewable generators and storage operators.

• Strategic approaches to optimizing battery energy storage and capturing ancillary service revenues.

• Innovative PPA structures and other mechanisms that unlock additional value in evolving power markets.

• Opportunities for early movers in Poland, the CEE region, and beyond, as the power market adapts to higher renewable penetration and new regulations.

This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re delighted to welcome Anna von Bremen, Partner and Head of Energy Innovation at Osborne Clarke. She joins Nico Leicht, Project Leader in Aurora’s Berlin Advisory Team, to discuss market design, regulatory frameworks, and innovation in the German power sector.

Anna brings deep expertise in energy regulation and co-located battery storage projects, advising on both technical and commercial aspects of the evolving market. Nico and Anna explore how Germany’s grid, regulatory processes, and market mechanisms are adapting to increasing renewable penetration and new storage technologies.

Main topics include the following:

• The role of regulators and grid operators in enabling a more flexible, digitalized, and grid-friendly energy system.

This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re delighted to welcome Marcio Trannin, Managing Director for LATAM at Sunco Capital and Vice-President of the Board of Administrators at ABSOLAR, and Ricardo Motoyama, Senior Vice President of Commercial & Business Development at Elera Renewables. They join Rodrigo Borges, Aurora’s Market Lead for Brazil, to explore how Brazil’s liberalising power market, rapid renewable expansion, and evolving policy landscape are reshaping the country’s energy future.

Marcio brings nearly three decades of experience across renewables, M&A, and regulatory affairs in Latin America’s electricity markets. Ricardo complements this with a strong commercial and financial background, offering insights into how trading, innovation, and risk management are driving new business models and accelerating Brazil’s transition to cleaner power. Together, they reflect on how Brazil can remain competitive in a global energy transition increasingly defined by flexibility and investment scale.

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This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re delighted to welcome Tom Palmer, Head of Business Development in Zenobē’s Network Infrastructure business. He joins Malvika Gode, Senior Associate at Aurora Energy Research, to explore how large-scale battery storage is transforming grid stability and enabling the transition to a fully renewable power system.

Tom is an economist by background and brings a wealth of experience from across the energy sector, having previously worked at RWE Renewables, Cornwall Insight, Origami Energy, Palantir Solutions, EDF Energy, and Ofgem. At Zenobē, Tom focuses on developing grid-scale battery projects that support transmission and distribution networks as they adapt to increasing renewable penetration.

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This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re delighted to welcome Martin Daronnat, Head of Flexibility & Structured Origination at ENGIE . He joins Casimir Lorenz, Aurora’s Managing Director for Central Europe, for a deep dive into the emerging market for flexibility purchase agreements (FPAs) and their role in financing and operating large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS).

Martin has over 10 years of experience in energy, with a strong background in flexibility and renewables structuring and origination. Under his leadership, ENGIE offers flexibility offtake agreements and structured products that make energy assets bankable while optimising risk exposure, including market and credit risk. In 2024, ENGIE closed Germany’s first long-term fixed-price physical FPA, enabling a large-scale BESS project to reach financial close.

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This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re joined by Lawson Steele, CEO of Haldane Energy, to explore the strategic and practical role of hydrogen in long-duration energy storage and the UK’s energy transition. Marten Ford, who leads Aurora’s work in GBN Ireland on low-carbon fuels and hydrogen, guides the conversation through the challenges and opportunities facing the UK’s power system over the next decade.

Lawson is responsible for the day-to-day management of Haldane Energy and is a founder and director of the Windward Energy group of companies. He has over a decade of experience in renewables and energy infrastructure, building wind portfolios and independent distribution networks.

Main topics include:

• The strategic rationale for hydrogen long-duration energy storage and its role in replacing aging gas-fired power plants

• How hydrogen provides high energy density and flexible dispatchable power relative to alternatives like batteries or pumped hydro

• Design and operation of closed-loop hydrogen systems, including electrolysers, salt cavern storage, and hydrogen fuel power stations

• Commercial viability and the importance of government schemes to de-risk investment in large-scale hydrogen energy storage

This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re delighted to welcome Juan Carlos Jobet, former Chilean Minister of Energy and Mining and now Dean of the Business School at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez. He joins José Muñoz, Aurora’s Country Lead for Chile, to discuss Chile’s path to a cleaner, more resilient energy system, from the coal phase-out and renewable growth to the country’s ambitions in green hydrogen and the decarbonisation of mining.

Juan Carlos served as Minister of Energy and Mining from 2019 to 2022, overseeing a period of profound change in Chile’s power sector. With a background spanning public service, investment banking and executive leadership in energy and infrastructure, he brings a unique perspective on the intersection of policy, markets and global energy challenges.

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This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re delighted to welcome Ben Guest, Managing Director and Head of Gresham House Energy Transition, as well as Fund Manager of the Gresham House Energy Storage Fund. He joins Caroline Still, Principal in our Oxford Advisory team, to discuss the role of storage and flexibility in enabling the UK’s energy transition.

Ben has over two decades of experience in the energy sector and leads the UK’s largest utility-scale battery storage fund. He has overseen the deployment of over 800 MW of operational battery projects, with a pipeline of more than 2 GW under development.

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This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re delighted to welcome Karin Burns, CEO of San Diego Community Power (SDCP). She joins Oliver Kerr, Aurora’s Managing Director for North America, and Farhad Billimoria, Head of US West Research, to discuss the rise of community choice aggregation (CCA) and its role in accelerating California’s clean energy transition.

Karin has led SDCP since 2022, overseeing its rapid growth into one of the largest CCAs in California, now serving nearly one million customers. With a background spanning international finance, non-profit leadership and sustainability strategy, she brings a unique perspective on how community-led models can deliver clean, affordable and reliable energy.

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