Situation
CPS Energy faced a consequential set of decisions about the future of its generation portfolio, including the potential transition away from coal and the resources needed to maintain reliable and affordable service. The utility also needed to incorporate a broad range of community and stakeholder priorities into its planning process while evaluating an increasingly diverse set of generation, renewable energy, and storage alternatives.
Approach
A team of CRA experts served as CPS Energy’s modeling and analysis advisor, working with the utility and its Rate Advisory Committee to develop and evaluate alternative generation portfolios. CRA established a structured resource planning framework, modeled nine portfolios comprising different combinations of dispatchable generation, renewables, and storage, and tested those portfolios across multiple market scenarios and sensitivities. The analysis evaluated tradeoffs across system reliability and climate resiliency, customer affordability, environmental sustainability, system flexibility, and workforce impacts, providing stakeholders with a common analytical foundation for comparing alternatives.
Result
CRA’s analysis supported a transparent stakeholder process and provided CPS Energy and its Board with a rigorous basis for making long-term generation decisions. The work ultimately informed the Board’s approval of a new generation plan establishing a path for the evolution of CPS Energy’s resource portfolio while balancing reliability, affordability, sustainability, flexibility, and community priorities.
