Integrated Resource Planning : A Systems Approach to Utility Planning

This chapter introduces integrated resource planning, a systems approach to utility planning that originated in the United States electricity industry in the 1970s. The approach helped utility planners move beyond the delivery of supply infrastructure alone and towards planning for more complex socio-technical systems in which demand could be managed. It did this by asking how to provide utility “services”, such as energy to a growing city, not just by building more power stations (“hard path” supply-options) but also through considering increased “end-use” efficiency and more localised generation such as rooftop solar power (“soft path” demand-side options). The chapter first provides a brief history of integrated resource planning, which developed in parallel to systems thinking, and whilst not specifically using systems terminology applies many of the key tenets, making it inherently a systems approach. The chapter then details the principles of integrated resource planning, outlines the approach and how it applies systems thinking. Two illustrative case studies from the Australian water and waste sectors are then discussed before considerations on future directions. These including its potential use in planning combined utility services with multiple and often competing objectives and for emerging services such as separate organic waste management.