Integrated resource planning

Integrated resource planning (IRP, also least-cost utility planning, LCUP) is a form of least-cost planning used by the public utilities. The goal is to meet the expected long-term growth of demand with minimal cost, using a wide selection of means, from supply-side (increasing production and/or purchasing the supply) to demand-side (reducing the consumption).[1] For example, for an electric utility the US law defines IRP as a planning process that evaluates the full range of alternatives, including new generating capacity, power purchases, energy conservation and efficiency, cogeneration and district heating and cooling applications.[2] The methodology requires the utility to be able to influence all aspects of the supply chain from production to consumption, so in the US it is used by many vertically integrated (non-deregulated) ones.[3] IRP effectively ends with deregulation.[4][5] The deregulated utilities (the ones that are customer-facing, without the generation plants) still can engage in the IRP,[4] and some interest returned in late 2010s.[citation needed]