Energy Unplugged by Aurora EP.262 Tom Palmer on Powering the Grid: The Growing Role of Large-Scale Battery Storage
Nov 4, 2025
Tom Palmer, an expert in energy economics and Head of Business Development at Zenobē, dives into the transformative role of large-scale battery storage in stabilizing renewable energy grids. He discusses how these batteries facilitate the energy transition, detailing innovations in grid-forming technology that provide critical stability. Tom also highlights the challenges faced in regulatory frameworks, revenue dynamics for battery projects, and lessons from successful implementations like Black Hillock. Get ready for insights on market trends and the future of grid storage!
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Rapid Growth In Size And Duration
- Battery projects are scaling from tens to hundreds of megawatts and moving toward gigawatt-class builds.
- Longer durations (3–4+ hours) are becoming essential to avoid revenue cannibalization and improve economics.
Skip Rates Waste Battery Value
- High balancing mechanism 'skip rates' have left large volumes of potential battery-saved energy unused.
- Tom estimates skip rates fell from ~93% to ~80%, costing consumers and wasting ~126 GWh of capacity this year.
Staff Control Rooms While Automating
- Increase short-term control-room resource and feedback loops while automating the BM to reduce skips.
- Use extra staff to review actions, feed learnings back, and save millions for consumers quickly.