With national and regional load growth projections showing significant electricity consumption above current usage in the next decade, sizable capital expenditures will be needed to meet growing needs. Ensuring investments are right-sized and consider all cost-effective approaches such as demand-size solutions, innovative technologies, and resilient supply-side resources will be critical to maintaining reliability and customer affordability. States can establish planning frameworks to guide how a full range of options are considered to promote economic growth and avoid unnecessary costs while also meeting state policies. Specifically, investment decisions increasingly require comprehensive electricity system planning that considers customer, distribution system, resource, and transmission needs and capabilities. In recent years, many public and private sector entities have advanced comprehensive planning to fully consider all options for meeting electricity needs.
NARUC and the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) co-lead an initiative, "Comprehensive Electricity Planning in an Era of Load Growth," for the development of state-led pathways toward a more resilient, efficient, and affordable grid that meets current and future electricity needs across the U.S. Twenty-nine public utility commissions and State Energy Offices from twenty-one states have joined the initiative, which is supporting states in better understanding forecasting, modeling, planning techniques, and both demand- and supply-side options for meeting projected load growth. Participants are being guided through an educational, creative, and collaborative process to develop multiple approaches for aligning distribution, resource, and transmission planning to satisfy new loads. For more information or to get involved, contact Danielle Sass Byrnett.
This initiative builds on past work by the NARUC-NASEO Task Force on Comprehensive Electricity System Planning. From 2018 to 2020, 15 state teams of NARUC and NASEO members developed innovative visions for how electricity system planning could be improved. Members created five distinct roadmaps and related resources that describe how the building blocks of historically siloed resource, distribution, and transmission planning processes can be reconfigured for greater alignment, increased transparency, and more robust stakeholder engagement. Members of the Task Force anticipated potential challenges to implement their visions for aligned planning and collaborated to identify possible solutions. They shared wish lists for tools and model development and offered starting points for other states.
- NARUC-NASEO Task Force on Comprehensive Electricity Planning factsheet
- The 2021 National Council on Electricity Policy Annual Meeting included an introduction to modern integrated and comprehensive planning, state agency roles in comprehensive electricity planning, and stakeholder perspectives. View recording and presentation outputs from the Task Force.
- Blueprint for State Action supports states seeking to further align electricity system planning processes in ways that meet their own goals and objectives. The Blueprint provides a step-by-step approach for states to develop and implement a plan or series of actions to better align planning processes, based on the experience of Task Force member states.
- Task Force Cohort Roadmaps describe five distinct visions for an ideal comprehensive electricity planning process created by Task Force members. The process is viewed from the state perspective on how to align or integrate distinct planning processes that, historically, have not significantly informed one another. Each roadmap explains one vision for aligned planning, including both procedural and analytical steps, alongside points of evidence for innovative approaches that appear in the vision. The five cohort roadmaps are:
- Standard Building Blocks of Electricity System Planning Processes two-page brief shares information about the color-coded framework cohorts used to describe their visions for aligned planning processes in consistent terms.
- Comprehensive Electricity Planning Library enables further learning about important issues related to comprehensive electricity planning by linking to existing publications and webinars. The library is organized across 15 key topical areas.
- Member State Summary Information includes a 2018 snapshot of each of the 15-member state’s electricity system profile, organizational responsibilities, policy goals, and then-current planning processes.
- Opportunities to Improve Analytical Capabilities towards Comprehensive Electricity System Planning paper outlines potential data, tools, and methods for conducting integrated analyses across key points in electricity planning processes that could help achieve the visions of the Task Force. This scoping study was used to conduct a gap analysis and develop a research agenda for approaches and capabilities in areas such as load forecasting, solution evaluation, and system optimization within planning.
- NARUC-NASEO Initiative Virtual Learning Series: IRP Models and Assumptions, September 2, 2025.
Nikhil Kumar and Taylor McNair of GridLab discussed IRP models and assumptions and provided a deep dive in metrics, methods, and capacity building. View recording and presentation.
- NARUC-NASEO Initiative Virtual Learning Series: Transmission Planning, Models, Tools, Assumptions, August 5, 2025
David Sehloff from Argonne National Lab gave an overview of a wide range of modeling practices and tools in transmission planning. The first part focuses on scenario development. Part two covers needs identification and selection. View recording part one, part two and presentation.
- NARUC-NASEO Initiative Virtual Learning Series: Distribution System Models and Modeling Assumptions, July 1, 2025.
Enrique Chacon of Electric Power Engineers Consulting (EPE) discussed distribution planning modeling tools and processes and assumptions within utility planning and modeling. View recording and presentation.
Chris Lawrie of Kevala discussed methods of forecasting distributed energy resources as part of load forecasting. View recording and presentation
- NARUC-NASEO Initiative Virtual Learning Series: Load Forecasting, June 3, 2025.
Greg Mandelman of EPE Consulting discussed load forecasting for large loads, including data centers, from the perspective of planning across bulk power and distribution systems. View recording and presentation.
- NARUC-NASEO Initiative: Comprehensive Electricity Planning in an Era of Load Growth virtual workshop, April 21 – 23, 2025.
Workshop objectives included: introducing existing and new resources to support robust distribution, resource, and transmission planning; documenting strategies, successes, challenges in practice among those who have been advancing planning; identifying needs for more peer & expert support to address challenges through the Initiative. View workshop presentations and resources.
- Integrated Electricity Planning Trainings
America’s bulk power system is a large interconnected electrical system comprised of generation and transmission facilities, operated by various control systems. As the BPS continues to evolve amidst the ongoing energy transition, NARUC has been offering virtual BPS training sessions aimed at electric utility regulators since 2021. Relevant sessions include:
- Integrated Resource Planning Webinars
- Webinar: Best Practices in Integrated Resource Planning: A Guide for Planners Developing the Electricity Resource Mix of the Future, January 2025
Emerging load growth, plant retirements, rising costs, and more extreme weather events – among other factors – are challenging electric utility planning processes across the country. During this Innovation Webinar, authors of a new guide produced by Synapse Energy Economics and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory highlighted some of the 50 best planning practices for electricity systems undergoing a major transition, as well as a wealth of practical guidance to develop technically sophisticated, clearer, more effective, and state-of-the-art electric utility resource plans. View recording and presentation.
- Webinar: Recent Market Design Enhancements to Address Evolving Resource Adequacy Concerns, March 2023
Approximately 200 GW of nameplate wind and solar capacity have been added to the U.S. power grid during the past two decades. Recently enacted federal incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will accelerate the investment in, and deployment of clean energy and storage across the U.S. Amidst this rapid transformation to a cleaner electric system, reliability events resulting from changing system attributes, combined with extreme weather events, have led to the recent introduction of several design enhancements in wholesale power markets throughout the country. Subject matter experts explained these market enhancements in CAISO, ERCOT, and ISO-New England and explored the different roles and interplay between market operators and regulators in addressing ongoing resource adequacy concerns. View recording and presentation.
- Webinar: Integrating Energy Storage into Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs), August 2022
ALearn how energy storage is currently considered in IRPs and could be evaluated in the future. Hear from experts about issues state utility regulators are facing with storage in modeling, valuation, cost parameters, and interconnection. View recording and presentation.
- Integrated Distribution System Planning Trainings
As the U.S. electric grid continues to change, NARUC has been working to help state public utility commissions address evolving grid planning challenges and opportunities. Since 2017, NARUC has partnered with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to provide public utility commissions with virtual and in-person training on electric distribution systems, utility distribution system planning, approaches to state engagement in integrated distribution planning, and modeling innovations. Relevant sessions include:
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NARUC and NASEO thank the U.S. Department of Energy for supporting this initiative.
The NARUC-NASEO Initiative: Comprehensive Electricity Planning in an Era of Load Growth Participants includes NARUC & NASEO members from 29 agencies across 22 diverse and representative U.S. states:
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- District of Columbia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Virginia
- Washington