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Ed Porter

@edporter.bsky.social

1.5K followers 1.2K following 360 posts

All things energy transition and batteries. Occasional host on the Transmission podcast. Longer reads on LI, video on YouTube and both on Modo Energy’s terminal.

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · Sep 3

If you’d like to keep in the loop on the latest news, research articles and battery storage indices from Modo Energy.

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

How do batteries in the most advanced battery storage geographies make returns?

Once frequency response markets are saturated, they move into the next best market, often energy trading.

Their impact at peak is usually at the expense of thermal plant which will see reduced run hours.

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah - I think this is the key role for batteries in a system with strategic reserve. Or a capacity market equivalent.

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

They’ll follow whatever market prices dictate… and with good design, this should equal system need. Whether it’s solar or wind, matters a bit for locational issues like voltage/constraints but still batteries will respond to market rates.

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

Agree, depends on grid conditions, but the energy load of providing these services is very light. Obviously, this depends how often they are called

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

2) In a dunkelflaute, I think the best use of storage is a daily cycle, minimising the size of the peak load, so that consumers have to pay the least possible for whatever form of strategic reserve is selected.

As ever, welcome feedback on this!

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

1) An inertia like response from a grid battery required around 2.5-5 seconds of response, so a 4 hour charged system has 3-6k responses before it is drained. Now that goes as quickly as the grid needs it, but may last more than a few days.

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

So I wouldn’t expect the batteries to be called on for inertia in a dunkelfalute. Batteries, for me, will be more impactful when we are energy rich in say summer but don’t have the required tech to provide ancillaries. Eg stopping CCGTs being turned on only for voltage control

Two other bits:

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

An interesting example - near term, in Dunkelflaute, I expect the energy shortfall to be mostly dealt with on a form of strategic reserve. So that gas has a load factor of sub 5% annually but can run for a week at a time. That removes a need to provide (for example) inertia if the gas is running…

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

Around 50GWh, more detail here:

youtu.be/vx9kdsLXKlw?...

CAISO added 2 GW of BESS in the first half of 2025. But what's in the pipeline?

YouTube video by Modo Energy

youtu.be

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

In Australia, with a weaker grid, we already see 40% of storage inverters being grid forming for exactly these services.

youtu.be/S7Lg1A958aA?...

The £60 Billion Plan To Rewire Britain | Ep227: John Pettigrew

YouTube video by Cleaning Up Podcast

youtu.be

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

And, create transparent markets for ancillary services like voltage, inertia or frequency response. Then you will get assets targeting these services as needed.

Eg, For voltage, I expect grid forming inverters will do a portion of this.

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

But, for system stability, if you require/purchase ancillary services from renewable assets (like reactive power, which you can get from a standard grid following inverter).

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

A snippet from Cleaning up with @mliebreich.bsky.social

Around 19:45:

Yes, shifting to renewable systems lowers grid inertia (importantly not to below required levels)…

The £60 Billion Plan To Rewire Britain | Ep227: John Pettigrew

YouTube video by Cleaning Up Podcast

youtu.be

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 2d

Pretty cool to see Modo Energy data highlighting the growth of battery storage and storage’s expanding role from supporting frequency to energy balancing, reserve and future voltage support.

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 4d

⚡️how grid forming inverters and their ability to set voltage beyond providing reactive power should get people excited about running power systems without CCGTs

Ps - some of those new EVs are huge! The BYD shark is more or less a tank

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 4d

⚖️ what the average prices look like for batteries in the balancing market and how this is undercutting gas - £33/MWh cheaper in September ‘25

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 4d

Had a blast speaking at Everything Electric on the future of resilient grids hosted by the excellent @bobbyllew.bsky.social

Key topics:
🔋 how quickly the battery fleet has grown (now 6.5GW/10GWh) to dominate short term flexibility, for example, in frequency response markets and at lower cost.

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 5d

How does liquidity pick up in Intraday markets, looking at Germany?

Slide from the recent German Livestream - which you can get here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=drhd...

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 5d

Very clear demonstration of cannibalisation of frequency response revenues as batteries push out any legacy technology from these markets.

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 6d

If you'd like to understand how batteries could work alongside gas and hydro in Spain, check out the latest Modo Energy livestream on BESS in Spain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0nR...

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 13d

Fun sawtooth trading in 15-min day ahead market in Germany

I don’t expect it to stay as trading patterns evolve and generators pick up additional 15-min blocks or buy back lower end of period volume.

Source: modoenergy.com/research/ger...

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 13d

More detail: youtu.be/0c-wDm1BoBE?...

How much battery capacity will be online in Spain by 2030?

YouTube video by Modo Energy

youtu.be

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 15d

Projects with formal filings in Spain’s BOE (official government statement), such as grid connection requests or environmental assessments.

Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 15d

What does Spain’s battery storage buildout look like?

By 2029, the country could host up to 5 GW of installed battery capacity.

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Ed Porter @edporter.bsky.social · 19d

Germany’s intraday market is the deepest and most volatile in Europe. More than a million trades clear daily, with 96 delivery windows open and prices swinging within minutes.

For batteries, this is where speed and flexibility deliver exceptional returns.

Chart from the Weekly Dispatch

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