Plugged In: the energy news podcast
Coming from the heart of the Montel newsroom, Editor-in-Chief, Snjolfur Richard Sverrisson and his team of journalists explore the news headlines in the energy sector, bringing you in depth analysis of the industry’s leading stories each week.
Richard speaks to experts, analysts, regulators, and senior business leaders to the examine not just the what, but the why behind the decisions directing the markets and shaping the global transition to a green economy.
New episodes are available every Thursday.
Episodes
378 episodes
Hormuz crisis: Outlook remains highly uncertain
The Strait of Hormuz crisis has reshaped the outlook for global energy markets, with uncertainty over LNG flows, European gas storage and geopolitical risk hanging over the months ahead.In this episode, we look at how the conflict has af...
Norway faces a dry, expensive winter
Reservoir levels in southern Norway are at their lowest for 30 years raising concerns about power prices in the months ahead and the Nordic region’s ability to balance domestic needs with exports to neighbouring markets.In this episode o...
Europe feels the heat: Extreme weather becomes the norm
Extreme heat and drought are putting Europe’s power system under pressure on close to an annual basis. Low river levels and high water temperatures are constraining nuclear and hydropower generation, just as demand for cooling rises...
Europe’s energy transition: Full speed ahead?
After a summer spent exploring the technologies, markets and policies shaping Europe's energy transition, the final episode of the Plugged In Summer Series asks one key final question: is the green shift slowing down, or speeding up?Rich...
Keeping pace with power hungry data centres
Artificial intelligence is transforming the global economy at extraordinary speed, but it's also creating one of the biggest new sources of electricity demand Europe has faced in decades. As hyperscale data centres continue to expand, are Europ...
Market design: Driving or derailing the transition?
Europe's electricity system is changing fast. As renewables continue to reshape the power mix, new challenges are emerging; from negative pricing and falling pofitability to the increased need for flexibility, storage, long-term investmen...
Grids: Easing bottlenecks
Europe has made remarkable progress in developing renewable energy, but grids – both at distribution and transmission level, are struggling to keep up. Congestion, long connection queues and ageing infrastructure are holding back the energy tra...
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Renewables Roll-Out: Saturation Reached?
Europe is developing green energy at lighting speed. But as solar and wind generation reaches record levels, new challenges are emerging across the electricity system. Negative prices, grid congestion, curtailment and falling capture pric...
State of Play: Where Are We Now?
Europe's energy transition has delivered record renewable deployment and significant emissions reductions, but a new wave of geopolitical instability is once again putting the resilience of the energy system to the test.This episode laun...
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Can Britain Still Deliver Net Zero? Chris Stark on “ungumming the system” and the UK's Energy Future
The UK has set one of the most ambitious energy targets in Europe: a fully clean power system by 2030. But achieving it will require a transformation of the country's electricity network, unprecedented levels of renewable investment, and diffic...
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Data Centre Boom: catalysts and constraints
Europe is experiencing a rush of investment into data centres as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services drive a new wave of electricity demand.From Finland to Spain, developers are searching for locations with abun...
Finland - a power success story?
As Europe grapples with energy security concerns, expectations of rising electricity demand, and the rapid growth of AI-driven data centres, Finland is emerging as one of the continent's most compelling energy success stories.In this epi...
Sweden’s energy spat with Brussels
Sweden's dispute with Brussels over electricity market rules is quickly becoming one of the biggest political energy stories in Europe.At the centre of the debate is a huge stockpile of congestion revenues; billions of euros generated fr...
Feeling the heat: Preparing Europe's grids for summer
Europe's power systems are facing a new reality.As heatwaves become more frequent and intense, electricity networks are coming under growing pressure. Rising cooling demand, aging infrastructure and the rapid expansion of renewable energ...
How many wake up calls does Europe need?
The US-Israeli led war in Iran and the prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is once again exposing Europe’s vulnerability to global energy shocks; raising urgent questions about gas storage, LNG dependency and whether governments have l...
Celebrating curtailment: Are negative prices really that bad?
Negative power prices are becoming increasingly commonplace in Europe’s electricity markets. With solar generation soaring and renewable buildout accelerating, Europe’s power systems are increasingly producing more electricit...
Snorkelling for negative prices
Norway - and the Nordic power system more generally - have seen fewer instances of negative prices than their continental counterparts in recent weeks. Why has the region been “snorkelling” while others have been plumbing the depths of negative...
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Gas storage: Complacency or Crunch?
Europe may have emerged from winter without a full-scale gas crisis; but with storage levels unusually low, geopolitical tensions rising, and summer-winter price spreads offering little commercial incentive, the real challenge may only just be ...
Reshaping French energy
From the streets of Paris to the heart of Europe’s energy regulation, this episode explores how geopolitics, market design and infrastructure are reshaping France’s - and the continent’s - energy future.As tensions in the Gulf ripp...
“Strange” prices rattle Europe's power markets
Across Europe, power prices are behaving in ways that are leaving even seasoned market participants questioning what they’re seeing. From negative prices to seemingly counterintuitive flows between some price zones, the electricity system is be...
Gulf Ceasefire: fragile or firm?
A fragile ceasefire in the Gulf offers a moment of relief; but is it already beginning to unravel and will it have lasting implications for gas supply in the region and far beyond?Recorded on the morning of April 9, amid fast-movin...
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PPA slowdown – temporary or permanent?
In this episode of Plugged In, we return to Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and their role in Europe’s energy transition.After years of rapid expansion, the PPA market hit a slowdown in 2025. Falling capture rates, rising negative price...
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Coal makes a comeback
In this episode of Plugged In, we turn to a topic we haven’t covered often; but one that’s rapidly moving back into the spotlight: coal.As war in the Middle East disrupts LNG supply chains and drives gas prices sharply higher, E...
