Capture, or point to updates as policy changes

[mrchrisadams]

From reading some of the feedback from piece of work, I'm seeing that one of takeaways is that attempts to design with carbon awareness in mind might be futile. Part of this seems to be related to the fact that how the grid works may be presented as unchanging, and we're in the middle of some really signficant changes to how the grid works, and where power comes from.

I'm linking to a few examples of policy changes below as a starting point, in case someone else wants to start collating further resources, as it seemed a constructive way to engage if there ever was an update.

Look at this in the UK - there are initiatives in play, to see how design schemes for making grid flexibilty work, and the early signs are they seem to be quite successful:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-how-great-britains-demand-flexibility-service-is-cutting-costs-and-co2-emissions

In Europe we literally had a whole consultation last year to redesign how markets work to support more flexible and responsive grids:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/13668-Electricity-market-reform-of-the-EUs-electricity-market-design_en

Plus an announcement of more than half a trillion EUR invested in upgrading the grid, which would go along way to supporting these changes:
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/european-commission-drafts-plans-for-584bn-grid-investment

To be fair some of these announcements above came after much of this document was written, so it's understandable.

Further reading / watching:

The IEA is publishing some really helpful content out there now - particularly on how grids are changing and what is needed.

In particular the recent report below, Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions is worth a watch/read:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK0779BUWfg
https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-grids-and-secure-energy-transitions

Their recent update on energy transition also provides some useful stats and data too

The World Energy Outlook (sometimes called the WEO, pronounced as wee-oh) is an authoritative global summary - with looooooads of helpful data and analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osVya3egqn4
https://www.iea.org/events/world-energy-outlook-2023

If you want to focus on clean energy specifically, the recent Renewables 2023 report is also worth a look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llND05OOpyY
https://www.iea.org/events/renewables-2023

Some of this content can be a bit dry, but it's very well researched, and authoritative - I've found it helpful when I've been trying to get an good, up to date understanding of the wider picture:
https://www.youtube.com/@IeaOrg/videos?view=2&sort=dd&live_view=503&shelf_id=0