No-Regrets Resource Plans for a Rapidly Changing Grid
Balancing reliability, decarbonization, and cost requires a planning framework built for the next-generation power system. Ascend helps utilities rigorously assess portfolios, identify resource needs, and develop resource plans optimized to meet reliability and policy targets at the minimum cost.
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30+
IRP Engagements Across Multiple US Power Markets Since 2020
100+
Simulations Provide Better Results for IRP Modeling
100%
PowerSIMM is Built for All Markets Across the US and Beyond
Resource Planning Pillars for Optimal Decisions
Increasing renewables, rapid load growth, shifting reliability risks, and policy mandates have fundamentally changed the way utilities plan and procure resources. Ascend's integrated resource planning framework, anchored in PowerSIMM and guided by decades of IRP expertise, enables utilities to produce rigorous and transparent resource plans to support decision making with any audience.
Stochastic Modeling
- Weather-correlated simulation
- Captures system uncertainty
- Hundreds of weather years tested
Capacity Expansion
- Automated resource selection
- Least-cost, least-risk pathways
- RPS and GHG constraint modeling
Reliability Analysis
- Loss-of-load probability (LOLP)
- ELCC for storage and renewables
- Includes extreme weather risks
Scenario Comparison
- Multiple resource portfolio options
- Cost, emissions, reliability tradeoffs
- Outputs provide direct comparisons
A Flexible, Rigorous Approach to Integrated Resource Planning
Resource planning decisions require a sophisticated, defensible analytical foundation that simultaneously accounts for weather variability, transmission constraints, technology costs, and regulatory mandates. Ascend works with utilities across the US to develop adaptable least-cost, no-regrets resource plans that integrate stochastic simulation, capacity expansion optimization, and regulatory-ready reporting into a single, consistent workflow.
Weather-Driven Simulation
Models the joint relationship between weather, load, renewable generation, and prices to produce realistic, correlated simulations across hundreds of weather scenarios
Weather-Driven Simulation
Models the joint relationship between weather, load, renewable generation, and prices to produce realistic, correlated simulations across hundreds of weather scenarios
Capacity Expansion Optimization
Identifies least-cost resource pathways that meet RPS, GHG, and reliability requirements simultaneously
Capacity Expansion Optimization
Identifies least-cost resource pathways that meet RPS, GHG, and reliability requirements simultaneously
Reliability Metrics
Calculates standard reliability outputs including loss-of-load hours (LOLH), loss-of-load expectation (LOLE) and effective load carrying capability (ELCC) for all resource types, including storage and renewables
Reliability Metrics
Calculates standard reliability outputs including loss-of-load hours (LOLH), loss-of-load expectation (LOLE) and effective load carrying capability (ELCC) for all resource types, including storage and renewables
Multi-Portfolio Comparison
Ranks resource portfolios by cost, emissions, and reliability across multiple scenarios, enabling transparent tradeoff analysis for decision makers
Multi-Portfolio Comparison
Ranks resource portfolios by cost, emissions, and reliability across multiple scenarios, enabling transparent tradeoff analysis for decision makers
Full Resource Integration
Integrates DSM, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, demand response, and emerging technologies such as long-duration storage, SMRs, and hydrogen into planning models
Full Resource Integration
Integrates DSM, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, demand response, and emerging technologies such as long-duration storage, SMRs, and hydrogen into planning models
Regulatory Support
Quickly and easily generates full model inputs and outputs in an easy-to-use format
Regulatory Support
Quickly and easily generates full model inputs and outputs in an easy-to-use format
End-to-End Workflow
Covers the full planning-to-procurement lifecycle, from IRP development through RFP design and evaluation, in a single platform
End-to-End Workflow
Covers the full planning-to-procurement lifecycle, from IRP development through RFP design and evaluation, in a single platform
Credibility
Ascend's IRP analyses are trusted by leading utilities, recognized by public utility commissions and regulatory bodies across the US
Breadth
Ascend works with investor-owned utilities, public power agencies, municipal utilities, and cooperatives across multiple US states
Specificity
PowerSIMM simulates system behavior and market prices at hourly and sub-hourly resolution, reflecting how modern grids actually behave
Engagement
The team participates directly in stakeholder workshops, regulatory proceedings, and community engagement processes, translating complex modeling outputs into clear, decision-ready guidance for boards, councils, and commissions
Unified
PowerSIMM’s planning to procurement functionality provides a unified decision framework, bringing together strategic resourcing, market-driven procurement, and operational risk management
Integrated Resource Planning & Strategy: The Ascend Advantage
Learn MoreWho Ascend Analytics Helps
From small municipal utilities to IOUs with large multi-state portfolios, Ascend's IRP expertise helps ensure confident resource planning decisions.
Key Resources
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Ascend Analytics Helps Austin Energy Gain Approval for 2035 Resource Plan
As one of the largest public power utilities in the United States and the second largest municipally owned utility within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) footprint, Austin Energy delivers electricity and other utility services to more than 550,000 customers within the City of Austin and its surrounding community.
Transmission-Constrained MUNI Retains Ascend to Develop Integrated Resource Plan Targeting 100% Clean Energy
Glendale Water & Power (GWP), a not-for-profit municipal utility with a peak load of 350 MW nine miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, selected Ascend Analytics to develop an integrated resource plan (IRP).
Deploying a Planning to Procurement Pathway for Utilities with PowerSIMM
Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County, Washington (“Grant PUD”), delivers power to over 54,000 active meters in one of Washington’s leading crop-producing counties. Built on hydropower from the Columbia River System dams dating back to 1938, Grant PUD has relied on this renewable resource to reliably and cost-effectively meet energy demand.
