Integrated resource planning - a long and winding road

The separation of Croatia from former Yugoslavia and the military turbulence at its borders during the last years caused a number of problems in the Croatian energy system. Resources for improving the situation are scarce. So it is necessary to plan the rehabilitation and modernization of the Croatian energy system in a way which includes all national resources and allocates these resources where they lead to the highest benefits to the national economy. In this paper it is shown that Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) is such a method which enables the rational use of national resources. Also presented in this paper is a transparent and rational procedure which allows the energy planner to support the decision maker in developing an energy policy under consideration of interests of affected groups. This procedure is called Structured Analysis Procedure and step by step leads from the problem formulation to the decision on which action is to be applied to solve the problem. (author)