Plain-English explainers on how energy systems, technologies, markets and infrastructure work, without the jargon fog.
AC/DC once meant dive bars, sticky floors and singing at the top of my lungs. Here’s what the initials actually mean, explained through kitchen taps, phone chargers and the solar panels turning homes into mini power plants.
After AI got a simple country list wrong, I tried again with a harder task: mapping electricity market structures. The results were much better, not because AI suddenly became perfect, but because the questions, definitions and boundaries were clearer.
A simple energy market / country list became five spreadsheet versions, two AI tools, missing entries and confidently wrong explanations. A practical reminder to check AI’s homework before it feeds into reports, strategy decks or executive decisions.
Energy loves its acronyms, but it’s not always clear they’re helping. From HEMS to DERMS, this article explores how language meant to simplify can sometimes add to the confusion.
DER is scaling fast, and the risks are catching up. Software needs smarter optimisation and risk managers need to step up, or we will repeat the same mistakes finance made when models grew faster than governance.
AI can write, plan, and predict but can it run the grid? This piece explores where it’s already adding value, where it still fails, and why the future of a “self-healing” grid will depend as much on people and infrastructure as on algorithms.
A drawer once full of tangled cables gave way to a single universal connector. The piece looks at how USB-C reduced friction, sped up charging, and what its success teaches about the value of standards, from consumer tech to home energy.
Smarter meters on paper, stubborn results in practice. We explain what AMI is, what ‘2.0’ promises, and why those expectations clash with reality. We unpack where advanced meters trip in real homes and why a partner-first approach works better than cramming everything into one box