The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) are launching a new 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. This initiative builds on past work by the NARUC-NASEO Task Force on Comprehensive Electricity System Planning.
For the first time in decades, utilities are projecting significant load growth due to rising power requirements from data centers, manufacturing facilities, transportation, and buildings. Emerging technologies, evolving cost profiles, consumer preferences, energy provider options, and state and local efforts are driving the need for a variety of electricity sources and responses. Investment decisions increasingly require comprehensive electricity system planning that considers customer, distribution system, resource, and transmission needs and capabilities. States can establish planning frameworks to guide how a full range of options are considered to promote economic growth and avoid unnecessary costs.
With greater alignment of planning processes, states and utilities could:
With recent load growth projections ranging from 15 to 20 percent above current electricity consumption in the next decade,1 electricity distribution, resource, and transmission planning needs to account for the locations, current infrastructure capabilities, and load shapes of new and emerging resources requiring power while also meeting state policies.
Capital expenditures will be significant 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.
November 13, 2024 to January 24, 2025: NARUC and NASEO invite members to submit expressions of interest in participating.
February 2025: NARUC and NASEO announce full roster of Initiative members.
Spring 2025: First in-person workshop.
Fall 2025: Share updated roadmaps and resources on comprehensive energy planning.
Winter 2025-2026: Second in-person workshop on modeling.
Spring 2026: Release comprehensive planning approaches and modeling, including templates and state examples.
Danielle Sass Byrnett, dbyrnett@naruc.org, Senior Director, NARUC Center for Partnerships & Innovation
Kirsten Verclas, kverclas@naseo.org, Senior Managing Director, NASEO
From 2019 to 2020, 15 state teams of NARUC and NASEO members developed innovative visions for how electricity system planning could be improved through the NARUC-NASEO Task Force on Comprehensive Electricity System Planning. 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 implementation of 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. Since then, many public and private sector entities have advanced comprehensive planning as the imperative has grown to fully consider all options for meeting electricity needs.
Now is the time for NARUC and NASEO members to update their understanding of emerging opportunities, tool capabilities, and experiences among peers to advance comprehensive electricity system planning.
NARUC and NASEO thank the U.S. Department of Energy for supporting this initiative.
1 https://www.energy.gov/policy/articles/clean-energy-resources-meet-data-center-electricity-demand