Transmission

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The UK energy transition faces a critical bottleneck: a planning system crippled by risk aversion and procedural overload. In this episode, we explore the reality behind infrastructure delivery, from the 47 recommendations of the UK Prime Minister’s nuclear regulatory task force to the exploding demand for data centers.

In this episode, Mustafa Latif-Aramesh (Partner and Parliamentary Agent at TLT ) joins Ed to examine how overlapping regulation and institutional duplication push developers toward compliance theatre rather than meaningful environmental protection, epitomised by Hinkley Point C’s infamous £700 million “fish disco.” The conversation explores what it would take to move the UK from a process-obsessed planning regime to one that rewards outcomes, accelerates delivery, and underpins the next wave of digital and energy infrastructure.

Key topics covered:

• Why the UK’s infrastructure planning system prioritises administrative process over real environmental outcomes.
• How spending £700 million to protect a fraction of a salmon population reveals a breakdown in regulatory proportionality.
• Whether a single Nuclear Regulatory Commission could cut duplicative red tape and unlock faster decommissioning and new nuclear build.
• Is the Planning Inspectorate equipped to handle 500 proposed data centres alongside the wider energy transition?
• Can co-locating Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) with data centres address the sector’s “five nines” reliability challenge?

About our guest

Mustafa Latif-Aramesh is a Partner at the law firm TLT, where he specialises in infrastructure planning across the entire energy spectrum from transmission lines and battery storage to wind, solar, and nuclear. He recently served on the Prime Minister’s Nuclear Regulatory Task Force, a specialist group established to diagnose why building nuclear capacity in Britain takes so long and to identify solutions for expediting delivery

Working alongside industry leaders and economists, Mustafa helped author a report containing 47 recommendations designed to eliminate regulatory duplication and shift the system’s focus from administrative process to tangible outcomes. Beyond nuclear, he advises on the planning challenges facing the UK's rapidly expanding data center pipeline, advocating for a system that balances environmental standards with the need for critical infrastructure. You can follow his analysis on TLT’s infrastructure planning blog.

Connect with Mustafa on Linkedin here.

About Modo Energy

Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.

All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?

Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.

https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch

The UK energy transition faces a critical bottleneck: a planning system crippled by risk aversion and procedural overload. In this episode, we explore the reality behind infrastructure delivery, from the 47 recommendations of the UK Prime Minister’s nuclear regulatory task force to the exploding demand for data centers.

In this episode, Mustafa Latif-Aramesh (Partner and Parliamentary Agent at TLT ) joins Ed to examine how overlapping regulation and institutional duplication push developers toward compliance theatre rather than meaningful environmental protection, epitomised by Hinkley Point C’s infamous £700 million “fish disco.” The conversation explores what it would take to move the UK from a process-obsessed planning regime to one that rewards outcomes, accelerates delivery, and underpins the next wave of digital and energy infrastructure.

Key topics covered:

• Why the UK’s infrastructure planning system prioritises administrative process over real environmental outcomes.
• How spending £700 million to protect a fraction of a salmon population reveals a breakdown in regulatory proportionality.
• Whether a single Nuclear Regulatory Commission could cut duplicative red tape and unlock faster decommissioning and new nuclear build.
• Is the Planning Inspectorate equipped to handle 500 proposed data centres alongside the wider energy transition?
• Can co-locating Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) with data centres address the sector’s “five nines” reliability challenge?

About our guest

Mustafa Latif-Aramesh is a Partner at the law firm TLT, where he specialises in infrastructure planning across the entire energy spectrum from transmission lines and battery storage to wind, solar, and nuclear. He recently served on the Prime Minister’s Nuclear Regulatory Task Force, a specialist group established to diagnose why building nuclear capacity in Britain takes so long and to identify solutions for expediting delivery

Working alongside industry leaders and economists, Mustafa helped author a report containing 47 recommendations designed to eliminate regulatory duplication and shift the system’s focus from administrative process to tangible outcomes. Beyond nuclear, he advises on the planning challenges facing the UK's rapidly expanding data center pipeline, advocating for a system that balances environmental standards with the need for critical infrastructure. You can follow his analysis on TLT’s infrastructure planning blog.

Connect with Mustafa on Linkedin here.

About Modo Energy

Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.

All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?

Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.

https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch

Solar projects in Great Britain are often framed as a trade-off: can we combat climate change without compromising the countryside? Increasingly, the answer is yes. Across the country, solar developers are not only installing panels but actively restoring and enhancing the ecosystems around them.

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is reshaping what responsible solar development looks like. Many leading projects are far exceeding the statutory 10% requirement, transforming intensively farmed monoculture into thriving habitats. These sites now deliver clean power while providing farmers with stable, long-term income—showing we don’t have to choose between renewable energy and rich, living landscapes.

In this conversation, Fran Button - deputy CEO at British Solar Renewables joins Ed to unpack how solar developers are designing projects that benefit both the grid and the natural world.

• Why ecologists must establish a biodiversity baseline before construction begins.

• How some developments are achieving BNG scores of 200% or more - well beyond what regulations demand.

• Whether high-tech energy generation can genuinely coexist with low-tech agriculture.

• Dispelling the misconception that solar farms are empty that solar developments lack ecological value.

• How solar energy is providing farmers with a stable income stream that allows them to continue farming.

About our guest

Fran Button is Deputy CEO of British Solar Renewables where she is responsible for all aspects of risk management and ESG. With a background as a specialist non-contentious construction lawyer involved in drafting and negotiating complex building contracts. Fran has particular expertise in renewables projects having being involved in large-scale solar development and funding and energy from waste projects.

British Solar Renewables are developing, building, and operating renewable energy projects that power homes, businesses, and communities. From green fields to grid connection - creating clean energy that strengthens the UK’s resilience, supports biodiversity, and delivers lasting value for people and the planet. For more information head to their website. https://britishrenewables.com/

About Modo Energy

Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.

All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?

Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.

https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch

Solar projects in Great Britain are often framed as a trade-off: can we combat climate change without compromising the countryside? Increasingly, the answer is yes. Across the country, solar developers are not only installing panels but actively restoring and enhancing the ecosystems around them.

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is reshaping what responsible solar development looks like. Many leading projects are far exceeding the statutory 10% requirement, transforming intensively farmed monoculture into thriving habitats. These sites now deliver clean power while providing farmers with stable, long-term income—showing we don’t have to choose between renewable energy and rich, living landscapes.

In this conversation, Fran Button - deputy CEO at British Solar Renewables joins Ed to unpack how solar developers are designing projects that benefit both the grid and the natural world.

• Why ecologists must establish a biodiversity baseline before construction begins.

• How some developments are achieving BNG scores of 200% or more - well beyond what regulations demand.

• Whether high-tech energy generation can genuinely coexist with low-tech agriculture.

• Dispelling the misconception that solar farms are empty that solar developments lack ecological value.

• How solar energy is providing farmers with a stable income stream that allows them to continue farming.

About our guest

Fran Button is Deputy CEO of British Solar Renewables where she is responsible for all aspects of risk management and ESG. With a background as a specialist non-contentious construction lawyer involved in drafting and negotiating complex building contracts. Fran has particular expertise in renewables projects having being involved in large-scale solar development and funding and energy from waste projects.

British Solar Renewables are developing, building, and operating renewable energy projects that power homes, businesses, and communities. From green fields to grid connection - creating clean energy that strengthens the UK’s resilience, supports biodiversity, and delivers lasting value for people and the planet. For more information head to their website. https://britishrenewables.com/

About Modo Energy

Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.

All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?

Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.

https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch

The global energy sector is increasingly exposed to unpredicatble weather. Wind droughts and extreme temperatures can create massive financial instability. How do renewables that rely on an ever increasingly hard to predict energy source - manage the risk that the sun might not shine, and the wind might not blow?

This episode demystifies the multi-billion-pound market of weather derivatives, exploring how energy utilities, renewable asset owners, and battery optimisers use these customised structured products - using signals like Heating Degree Days, wind speeds, or precipitation to effectively transfer operational risk

Key topics covered:

- How thus multi-billion-pound market operates almost entirely out of sight.

- How a single wind drought drained €1.6 billion from Germany’s energy system - highlighting why hedging renewable-generation risk has become mission-critical.

- The financial “Lego bricks” that allow traders to build bespoke weather protection.

- Why battery owners must hedge against boring weather and how low-volatility conditions could quietly erode their revenues.

- Why financiers are insisting on weather insurance before funding new renewable assets.

About our guests

Theresa Kammel - Weather Derivative Originator and Pierre Buisson - Senior Structurer, Weather and Energy work at Munich Re, one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, primary insurance and insurance-related risk solutions. Munich Re is also playing a key role in driving forward the digital transformation of the insurance industry. For more information, head to their website. https://www.munichre.com/en.html

About Modo Energy

Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market - and make the most out of their assets.

All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?

Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.

https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch

The global energy sector is increasingly exposed to unpredicatble weather. Wind droughts and extreme temperatures can create massive financial instability. How do renewables that rely on an ever increasingly hard to predict energy source - manage the risk that the sun might not shine, and the wind might not blow?

This episode demystifies the multi-billion-pound market of weather derivatives, exploring how energy utilities, renewable asset owners, and battery optimisers use these customised structured products - using signals like Heating Degree Days, wind speeds, or precipitation to effectively transfer operational risk

Key topics covered:

- How thus multi-billion-pound market operates almost entirely out of sight.

- How a single wind drought drained €1.6 billion from Germany’s energy system - highlighting why hedging renewable-generation risk has become mission-critical.

- The financial “Lego bricks” that allow traders to build bespoke weather protection.

- Why battery owners must hedge against boring weather and how low-volatility conditions could quietly erode their revenues.

- Why financiers are insisting on weather insurance before funding new renewable assets.

About our guests

Theresa Kammel - Weather Derivative Originator and Pierre Buisson - Senior Structurer, Weather and Energy work at Munich Re, one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, primary insurance and insurance-related risk solutions. Munich Re is also playing a key role in driving forward the digital transformation of the insurance industry. For more information, head to their website. https://www.munichre.com/en.html

About Modo Energy

Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market - and make the most out of their assets.

All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?

Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.

https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch

Battery storage is scaling fast, but taking a project from concept to energisation is harder than ever. In this episode, we dig into the real-world challenges that determine whether a project becomes bankable - or never reaches the start line.

From grid connection delays and tightening lender requirements to shifting revenue models and contract alignment, we unpack the risks developers must tackle long before construction begins.

In todays conversation, Ed is joined by Conrad Purcell, Infrastructure and Energy Projects Partner at Haynes Boone to explore why uncertainty is the biggest barrier to financing, how misaligned warranties or optimisation strategies can derail an otherwise strong project, and what lenders now expect from revenue models in a more merchant-heavy market. If you’re building, funding, or analysing energy storage, this episode offers a clear, practical view of the decisions and trade-offs needed to secure investment and deliver successful battery projects in today’s GB market.

They discuss:

• What makes a battery storage project bankable and how developers must reduce uncertainty to unlock debt finance.

• How grid connection delays and uncertainty now dominate project timelines.

• Why lender expectations around warranties, performance guarantees, and EPC structures matter.

• How shifting market dynamics affect choices - from ancillary services to merchant-heavy revenue stacks.

• The end-to-end development process to take a battery project from early development through to financial close.

If you would like to watch the video on project financing, you can do so through the link https://www.linkedin.com/posts/haynes-boone-london_project-finance-explained-how-to-fund-major-activity-7399792758359752704-FWqh?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABYDkgwBdm6Zsq7Vlc0xyDtCNoeCj9e62tg

About our guest

Conrad Purcell is a seasoned project finance lawyer at Haynes Boone - with deep experience structuring and delivering complex energy infrastructure across the UK and internationally. Having worked on wind, solar, storage and broader clean energy portfolios, he brings a clear understanding of how lenders assess risk, what makes a project bankable, and the commercial, legal and technical alignment needed to reach financial close. His practical, detail-driven perspective offers invaluable insight for today’s fast-evolving battery storage market.

About Modo Energy

Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.

All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?

Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.

https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch

The war in Ukraine has caused catastrophic destruction to its energy infrastructure, wiping out assets and rendering the much of the countries dispatchable generation capacity non-operational.

This crisis has amplified the need for robust, flexible energy systems, in order to maintain power to the country during such testing times. This episode is about batteries as a necessity. Built as critical infrastructure. Built fast. Built for stability. Built for a grid that has to keep working, no matter what.

In this episode, Julian Jansen, Managing Director at Fluence, discusses the deployment of 500 MWh of large-scale battery energy storage systems across seven projects in Ukraine. He outlines the technical, logistical, and operational considerations involved in delivering energy infrastructure in a highly complex environment.

• How the destruction of more than 80% of Ukraine’s thermal and hydro power plants has created an urgent need for reliable energy storage.

• How battery storage projects in the region provide critical grid support even as the electricity system faces ongoing conflict.

• What it took to shorten project delivery timelines from the industry-standard twelve months to just six.

• How remote commissioning and training have been used to equip Ukrainian teams with the skills needed to install, operate, and maintain advanced energy systems.

• Why cybersecurity has become a core component of national energy security.

About our guest

Julian Jansen is the Managing Director at Fluence. Having previously been responsible for Fluence’s business in Southern and Eastern Europe, he is currently transitioning to the Managing Director role in Germany.

Established in 2018, Fluence is one of the leading providers of battery energy storage solutions, software, and long-term services. Operating in 40 markets globally to transform how the world is powered using energy storage for a more sustainable future. For more information - head to the Fluence website. https://fluenceenergy.com/

About Modo Energy

Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.

All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?

Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.

https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatch

The war in Ukraine has caused catastrophic destruction to its energy infrastructure, wiping out assets and rendering the much of the countries dispatchable generation capacity non-operational.

This crisis has amplified the need for robust, flexible energy systems, in order to maintain power to the country during such testing times. This episode is about batteries as a necessity. Built as critical infrastructure. Built fast. Built for stability. Built for a grid that has to keep working, no matter what.

In this episode, Julian Jansen, Managing Director at Fluence, discusses the deployment of 500 MWh of large-scale battery energy storage systems across seven projects in Ukraine. He outlines the technical, logistical, and operational considerations involved in delivering energy infrastructure in a highly complex environment.

• How the destruction of more than 80% of Ukraine’s thermal and hydro power plants has created an urgent need for reliable energy storage.

• How battery storage projects in the region provide critical grid support even as the electricity system faces ongoing conflict.

• What it took to shorten project delivery timelines from the industry-standard twelve months to just six.

• How remote commissioning and training have been used to equip Ukrainian teams with the skills needed to install, operate, and maintain advanced energy systems.

• Why cybersecurity has become a core component of national energy security.

About our guest

Julian Jansen is the Managing Director at Fluence. Having previously been responsible for Fluence’s business in Southern and Eastern Europe, he is currently transitioning to the Managing Director role in Germany.

Established in 2018, Fluence is one of the leading providers of battery energy storage solutions, software, and long-term services. Operating in 40 markets globally to transform how the world is powered using energy storage for a more sustainable future. For more information - head to the Fluence website. https://fluenceenergy.com/

About Modo Energy

Modo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage understand the market — and make the most out of their assets.

All episodes of Transmission are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To stay up to date with our analysis, research, data visualisations, live events, and conversations, follow us on LinkedIn. Explore The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series explaining how power markets work.