Podcast: How virtual power plants help relieve grid pressures

Electricity grids around the world are racing to catch-up with the evolving energy needs of a growing global population, the proliferation of new technologies and the transition to green energy.

 

Flexibility is critical if we are to prevent already over-stretched, ageing, energy infrastructure from snapping. 

 

In this episode of Transmission: The Podcast, Michael Lynch, Manager of Enel X’s Global Network Operations Centre in Dublin, joins Ed Porter from Modo Energy to discuss the critical role played by Virtual Power Plants (VPP) in helping stabilise global electricity grids. 

 

In conversation they discuss:

• How VPPs serve the needs of grid and asset operators
• The need for resilience in high-stakes situations from shutdowns and outages, to extreme weather and even earthquakes
• The responsibility of managing almost 10GW of aggregated capacity and being ready to respond to grid emergencies all over the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
• The importance of flexibility and automation in managing VPP performance
• The future of VPPs

 

Transmission is the weekly podcast from Modo Energy, the global standard for benchmarking and valuing electrification assets. In each episode, the sharpest minds in energy, finance, climate, and technology - unpack the forces reshaping our power systems. From market design and trading strategies to emerging technologies and investment flows, Transmission explores how innovation and capital are colliding to accelerate the shift toward a net-zero world. Guests range from founders and policymakers to traders, engineers, and investors - the people actually building the future of energy and electrification. If you want to understand how renewables, energy storage, and markets fit together - and what it means for business, climate, and society - Transmission is your guide to the clean energy economy.