50 Ways to Improve Planning for Electricity Resources of the Future
A new guide for electric utilities, states, and stakeholders addresses current challenges for integrated resource plans (IRPs), the roadmaps for meeting forecasted electricity demand.
Most states today require regulated electric utilities to file an IRP every 1 to 5 years, and some utilities voluntarily prepare these plans (see map). IRPs historically focus on the bulk power system (including generation and demand-side options), and their objective is to demonstrate which resource portfolio is most likely to be optimal — lowest cost in the face of risks and uncertainties. IRPs provide information on electricity system costs, risks, reliability, and trends and answer important questions that affect electricity consumers and utility investors.
Planning needs have changed in recent years. Emerging load growth, plant retirements, rising costs, and more extreme weather events – among other factors – are challenging utility planning processes across the country. In response, Synapse Energy Economics and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory produced a joint report, Best Practices in Integrated Resource Planning: A guide for planners developing the electricity resource mix of the future.
The authors will discuss their findings and recommendations in a webinar on January 9, 2024, 12:30–1:30 p.m. Eastern. Register here: https://lbnl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MkBbfQSeSdKjYcxTkBiBXw
The guide offers best planning practices for electricity systems undergoing a major transition, but also contains a wealth of practical guidance to develop technically sophisticated, clearer, more effective, and state-of-the-art electric utility resource plans.
The guide is for resource planning professionals and stakeholders involved in resource planning processes. This diverse group includes utility personnel tasked with conducting resource planning and making investment decisions, state regulatory commissions that develop planning guidance and oversee the resource planning process, and stakeholders that represent a wide range of interests—utility consumer advocates, environmental groups, industrial customers, local governments, independent power producers, and many others.
A checklist (at the end of this announcement) outlines and organizes 50 best practices that states and utilities can consider.
For questions on the report, please contact JP Carvallo ([email protected]) or Devi Glick ([email protected]). The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity provided funding for Berkeley Lab's work on the study. DOE and the Energy Foundation funded work by Synapse Energy Economics.
