The foundations of utility planning are shifting.
Rapid load growth, evolving reliability requirements, transmission constraints, and increasing interdependence between electric and natural gas systems are creating a more complex and uncertain planning environment.
As a result, Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs) may now need to account for a growing set of variables that can change within a planning cycle, while also balancing objectives associated with reliability, affordability, and environmental sustainability.
In the first of a series of four Energy whitepapers exploring the changing IRP landscape, Patrick Augustine, Anant Kumar, Jesse Dakss, Oliver Stover, Ehsan Nasrolahpour, Michael May, and Theodore Why provide an overview of three shifts shaping the next generation of IRP:
- Evolving resource adequacy frameworks that impact resource accreditation and planning reserve margin targets.
- Greater integration of transmission deliverability, congestion, and grid impacts on resource decisions.
- Growing coordination between natural gas and electric systems in utility planning.
The remaining papers in this series address each of these shifts in more detail, exploring the broadening set of questions and analytical approaches now being deployed across the industry.
The authors argue that next-generation IRP is ultimately about creating a tighter connection between analysis and decision-making, helping utilities identify strategies that remain flexible, adaptable, and resilient.
