Building a brighter future

In the late seventies and early eighties, the search to develop alternative energy resources was driven by the high cost of construction for new generation facilities and the high cost of imported oil. In the late eighties and early nineties, environmental protection has replaced cost as the primary force directing the push for efficiency and renewables. The recognition of hard to quantify environmental and societal costs in utility and regulatory decision-making is changing the way the utility industry has operated for decades. Least-cost energy planning is a concept with many identities. Depending on your orientation, you may know the principles of least-cost energy planning as integrated resource planning or integrated value-based planning. This report will refer to the general principles and process outlined below as least-cost energy planning, except in the case studies, where the terminology used in the particular state will be continued. This report focuses on the least-cost planning and demand-side resource development processes undertaken in Connecticut, Nevada, Washington, and Wisconsin. These four states illustrate the diversity of procedures and mechanisms which can be employed to reach the common goal. The goal has multiple parts: increased non-utility participation at the beginning of utility resource planning; integration, by the utility, of demand and supply resources during the cost-effectiveness determination; and increased reliance on relatively environmentally benign demand-side resources