How Utilities Can Align 20-Year Resource Plans With Distributed Solar, EVs and More

"Two years ago, most utilities thought these transformations were five to seven years out," said Gary Vicinus, managing director at Siemens Energy Business Advisory. "But they’re already here."

In a striking move earlier this year, Arizona regulators did not endorse the state’s major utilities’ long-term resource plans.

The rebuke of the utilities’ integrated resource plans (IRPs) came along with a short-term freeze on new natural gas plants larger than 150 megawatts. In the two years since the IRPs began to form, the cost of energy storage had fallen dramatically — just one example of how new technologies are outpacing planning timelines.

Arizona, a state awash in distributed solar and with a far-reaching Energy Modernization Plan in front of regulators, is not alone. No matter the level of penetration of distributed energy resources like solar PV, battery storage and electric vehicles, most utilities and regulators are grappling with modernizing the IRP process to meet the changing market. More than 30 state commissions currently require an IRP strategy, while simultaneously mandating and/or incentivizing growing levels of decentralized and distributed energy resources (DERs).

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