Contributed by Marc Lamoureux at IFS Copperleaf and Wen Tu, Senior Director of Integrated Planning at PG&E
As utilities face a “perfect storm” of explosive AI data center demand, rapid EV adoption, and urgent climate resilience needs, traditional, siloed methods of grid planning are breaking down.
For Pacific Gas & Electric, strengthening and future-proofing the grid required more than incremental change—it required a new blueprint. Serving 16 million Californians, PG&E has redefined how grid planning gets done, replacing disconnected spreadsheets with a pioneering, integrated planning model that is setting a new industry standard.
Traditional planning methods just simply don’t have the capacity to cope with the challenges of today, yet alone tomorrow. Faced with new, pressing grid complexities from the growing demand of EVs, data centers, and electrification, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), made the bold decision to transform how it plans, invests, and manages its extensive portfolio of assets. It needed a smarter, stronger, and more sustainable grid, and to suit, utilities must revolutionize how they plan today.
Here’s how PG&E was able to identify and avoid millions of customer outage minutes and enable its business leaders and decision makers to prioritize the right work at the right time, optimize limited capital, and dynamically adapt to change.
The utility industry is entering a period of major transformation whether it s it or not, and it needs an electrical grid today that can keep up with tomorrow’s challenges. Recent Deloitte research “2026 Power and Utilities Industry Outlook” puts the challenges into perspective.
“Utilities are under pressure to meet the energy demands of the AI economy while maintaining affordability. Driven by AI training workloads, alongside electrification in transportation and industry, peak demand is projected to grow by approximately 26% by 2035, testing today’s grid limits,” the outlook reads. “At the same time, new supply is not coming on fast enough and reliability pressures are mounting.”
A worldwide issue that needs more than a siloed approach
Traditional utility planning has long operated in silos, with generation, transmission, and distribution managed as largely independent functions. In today’s high-pressure energy environment—shaped by climate-driven wildfires, extreme weather, and rapidly rising demand—this fragmented approach is no longer just inefficient; it poses a real risk.
PG&E knew that to keep serving its 16 million customer base across California, these pressing issues needed addressing, quickly.
“Across the U.S., and even across the globe, the utilities industry is being forced to evolve, quickly,” explains Wen Tu, Senior Director of Integrated Planning at PG&E. “Electrification, EV growth, a pressing need to focus on renewable energy, and the impacts of climate change are all impacting how utilities operate. Today’s customer needs are multidimensional, and it was important that we met and addressed these changing needs efficiently.”
Say hello to the new framework in town
In response, PG&E, supported by IFS Copperleaf, began an integrated grid planning (IGP) initiative in 2024. IGP provided a strategic decision-making layer that enables PG&E to answer critical questions such as “What work should we do? When should we do it? And how can we execute it most efficiently?”
The company trialed work bundling across its grid portfolio. With IGP, PG&E grouped projects and coordinated execution across multiple programs. The results were impressive and PG&E now uses IFS Copperleaf Integrated Planning to manage its complex portfolio of assets, enabling better resource allocation with significant cost benefits, and a more reliable, consistent service to its 16 million customers.
The partnership is business critical, as Tu stresses: “I really believe that integrated grid planning, the framework that we are developing with our partners at IFS Copperleaf allows us to be agile. We piloted integrated planning across a $100 million portfolio and were able to see a 20% unit cost efficiency. This allowed us to reinvest millions back into the business, and therefore IFS Copperleaf customers to better address their needs.”
And say goodbye to siloes!
Prior to integrated grid planning, PG&E relied on a patchwork of spreadsheets, Power BI reports, and homegrown tools for investment planning. While functional for individual lines of business, these disconnected systems made it difficult to see the full picture. PG&E isn’t alone—still, many utilities continue to struggle with fragmented planning processes, siloed data, and disconnected teams across finance, operations, and asset management.
“Before our deployment of integrated planning, we had a diverse set of tools that we utilized for asset planning—but we lacked an enterprise tool that helped us efficiently manage system planning. The disconnect in our systems meant that we regularly faced challenges to do with capital efficiency and ensuring every dollar was directed to the highest-value work, reliability and customer outages, and strategic alignment when it came to execution with long-term goals,” Tu explains.
There’s new risks, and flexibility is key
“We knew that we needed a more holistic, data-driven approach that would allow us to align resources across multiple programs and lines of business. Wildfire risk, capacity growth, and aging assets were all pressing concerns, and it’s what led us to partner with IFS Copperleaf and Palantir Foundry to transition from siloed planning to a unified, data-driven approach.”
By moving to a unified platform, utilities are able to aggregate all investments in a single system of record and value them consistently. For example, the IFS Copperleaf Value Framework enables companies to evaluate diverse investments—from wildfire mitigation to capacity upgrades—on a common economic scale, ensuring that every decision aligns with corporate strategies and regulatory commitments.
Continuous re-optimization to stay prepared for what’s to come
As Tu explains, “With IFS Copperleaf, we can aggregate all of our investments in one place, value them consistently, and plan for the next decade—something we simply couldn’t do before. We’ve been able to avoid redundant field work, reduce outages, and deliver measurable financial and operational benefits.”
“For example, by consolidating more than 80 data sets across 20 systems into a single source of truth, and creating over 17,000 bundled investment decisions, we’ve now established a transparent, scalable model for investment planning.”
From here on, scenario modeling and continuous re-optimization enable PG&E to assess asset risk, generate investment plans, and optimize portfolios in alignment with strategic objectives, regulatory requirements, and resource constraints.
An integrated future
This case study shows just how utilities can evolve from fragmented, reactive decision-making toward a more coordinated and strategic approach. In doing so, PG&E is better equipped to deliver a more resilient, reliable, and sustainable energy system to customers across California. At a time marked by accelerating electrification and growing climate uncertainty, legacy planning methods are no longer enough—positioning PG&E as a model for what the future of the industry can look .
About the authors
Marc Lamoureux, Principal Product Manager at IFS Copperleaf
As Senior Product Manager at Copperleaf, Marc specializes in product strategy, data visualization, and GIS — helping teams turn complex challenges into value-driven outcomes. Marc has successfully led cross-functional efforts across sales, client engagement, and solution implementation in diverse sectors including utilities, transportation, and municipal markets.
Wen Tu, Senior Director of Integrated Planning at PG&E
As Senior Director of Integrated Grid Planning at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Wen drives innovation in long-term capital investment decision-making, bridging complex operational challenges with data-driven solutions that improve reliability, efficiency and customer outcomes. Wen has extensive experience leading integrated grid planning and enterprise-level initiatives in the energy and utilities sector.
Sumber Artikel:
Renewableenergyworld.com
