Energy Transitions

Europe’s recent heatwaves and droughts put the nuclear power sector under pressure, with some reactors forced to curtail output as river flows fell and cooling water became more constrained.

The events raised acute concerns about how extreme weather affects critical energy infrastructure and, more broadly, how well the existing nuclear fleet can withstand a changing climate.

To gain insight into how resilient the existing nuclear power fleet is and what needs to be done to future-proof the sector’s development, Pamela Largue speaks with King Lee, head of policy and industry engagement, at World Nuclear Association. Lee highlights what needs to happen to ensure nuclear can deliver on growing ambitions to triple capacity and the measures operators and policymakers can take to build resilience.

He also discusses the impact of rising electricity demand and how supply chains, financing, skills, and policy need to respond to ensure sustainable growth.

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As Europe electrifies, demand-side flexibility will play an increasingly important role in balancing the electricity system. But how will flexibility markets develop and how can the different signals reaching consumers be coordinated?
To find out, Pamela Largue speaks with Michael Villa, executive director of SmartEn, and Riley Behrens, associate consultant at LCP Delta, in this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast. They elaborate on the findings of a new report from SmartEn and LCP Delta, Reflecting on the Future: Medium-Term Evolutions Impacting the Development of Flexible Demand, which explores three possible pathways for the evolution of demand-side flexibility over the next decade. These pathways, or scenarios, are based on five pillars of the electricity system; namely, regulation, markets, demand, generation and networks. According to Behrens and Villa, the gap between these scenarios is significant, and it’s critical to set the direction to the most optimal scenario now.

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The global hydrogen sector appears to be moving beyond ambitious plans and into the build phase, with projects progressing from announcements to final investment decisions, construction and operation.
That’s according to Ivana Jemelkova, CEO of the Hydrogen Council, who spoke with Pamela Largue for this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast. Drawing on the Council’s latest Global Hydrogen Compass 2026 report, Jemelkova highlights evidence of a sector increasingly focused on turning ambition into deployment. She takes listeners on a tour of China, Europe and the US, exploring their different approaches to hydrogen development and the critical role of policy in unlocking demand and investment. She also offers a candid look at the challenges facing sectors such as green steel, what project cancellations and consolidation tell us about a maturing market as well as what it will take to build competitive hydrogen ecosystems.

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On April 28, 2025, a large-scale power outage swept across Iberia, disrupting daily life within seconds and exposing the limits of current approaches to grid reliability.

The event highlighted both the challenges of managing increasingly decentralised renewable assets and the shortcomings of traditional emergency protocols. According to Adrian Guggisberg, Division President Electrical Distribution Solutions, at ABB, it is a clear sign that the grid has become far more complex, and that our traditional ways of thinking are no longer sufficient.

This was one of Guggisberg’s key messages in this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast. He emphasises the need to make better decisions about how we build, operate, and configure the grid to keep pace with its transformation.

Guggisberg argues that digitalisation is essential to bringing greater transparency to the decentralised grid, including its configurations and settings. It can also enable more coordinated action across distributed points of the network to balance active and reactive power and manage power quality.

Ultimately, utilities, technology providers, and policymakers need to align on planning, standards, and investment. Without greater coordination, he warns, grid resilience will struggle to keep pace with the rapid transformation of the energy system.

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Imagine a home where EVs, solar panels, batteries and other energy technologies work seamlessly together to help households manage their energy, while playing an active role in balancing the grid.
That vision is rapidly becoming a reality. As renewables and electrification gather pace, households are moving beyond simply consuming energy to generating, storing, managing and even trading it. The result is a complex home energy ecosystem with the potential to cut costs, improve resilience and provide valuable flexibility to an increasingly decentralised energy system.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast, Pamela Largue speaks with Andrew Clint, CEO of UK-based smart energy technology company myenergi, about this shift and what it means for consumers and the wider energy system.
He highlights the value to consumers and the grid and also notes the challenges of bringing these technologies together, ensuring they communicate and that consumers can navigate multiple devices, apps and tariffs.

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