If you’re looking for a better way to run your Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), you’re not alone. Utilities across the U.S. are rethinking their IRP processes, searching for solutions that are faster, easier, and more transparent. Traditional IRP modeling workflows are slow, expensive, and heavily manual.
That’s why many teams are adopting flexible, Excel-based IRP workflow like the PLEXOS® Playbook for IRP, a cloud-native solution that simplifies modeling, reduces costs, and supports consistent, rigorous analysis.
This post explores how the customizable PLEXOS® Playbook for IRP helps utilities streamline planning, reduce reliance on outside resources, and deliver regulator-ready outputs, all within Excel.
You’ll learn:
For many utilities, the biggest barrier to effective IRP modeling isn’t uncertainty; it’s the process itself. Today’s IRPs require complex inputs, frequent updates, and transparent comparisons across multiple portfolios. Yet most planning teams still rely on fragmented spreadsheets, technical software, and manual workflows.
Updating scenarios is time-consuming and typically requires technical expertise that’s expensive and in short supply. Even small changes can mean hours of data wrangling, revalidation, and formatting.
But the real bottleneck comes after the model runs. Most teams spend more time formatting outputs and building regulatory tables than modeling itself. This slows down reviews, delays stakeholder feedback, and makes it harder to adapt when assumptions change.
PLEXOS® Playbook for IRP was designed to remove these bottlenecks. It combines Excel-based inputs with cloud-powered simulations to give teams a fast, scalable IRP workflow.
Each PLEXOS® Playbook for IRP comes pre-loaded with a calibrated dataset for your market, providing a structured foundation for IRP modeling. During implementation, 40 hours of support are used to integrate your utility’s assets, contracts, forecasts, and policy targets, giving you a portfolio-aligned starting point. From there, your team updates forecasts, policy assumptions, and scenario definitions directly in Excel to complete and customize the IRP model.
What makes this playbook different is how it handles results. It automatically generates submission-ready dashboards and tables in Excel as soon as simulations finish. Teams can immediately evaluate scenarios, verify compliance, and drop visuals directly into stakeholder decks or IRP filings, no manual post-processing required.
PLEXOS® Playbook for IRP simplifies the entire IRP process with a repeatable, cloud-connected workflow:
Receive a ready-to-use base case tailored to your region, with support to align it to your utility’s specific assumptions.
Need to model a new clean energy procurement? Add a gas retirement scenario? Shift RPS requirements? No scripting needed. Just open the Excel input sheet to:
Launch multiple cases directly from Excel. Run policy, market, and load cases side by side, without tying up local machines.
Dashboards auto-populate to visualize outputs for:
All outputs are exportable, customizable, and ready to share, reducing time spent on manual data processing.
Teams using the PLEXOS® Playbook for IRP report improvements in speed, clarity, and flexibility:
Instead of spending weeks formatting results, teams can focus on making decisions and refining their plans with confidence.
As clean energy goals and load uncertainty reshape utility planning, IRPs must evolve from time-consuming, static filings into strategic processes that deliver faster, more reliable results. PLEXOS® Playbook for IRP enables teams to plan with greater speed and flexibility, supporting smarter, more responsive decisions in a rapidly changing grid environment.
If your team is looking for a faster, more transparent, and scalable way to manage Integrated Resource Planning, the PLEXOS® Playbook for IRP is built for you.