Glendale lies on the eastern edge of the San Fernando Valley in southern California, adjacent to Los Angeles. Glendale Water & Power (GWP) sought to meet its retail electricity load at the lowest cost through both supply-side and demand-side resources. In addition, GWP set a goal of meeting California’s renewable and zero-carbon targets by 2035, ten years early.

The GWP 2024 IRP considered only renewable and zero-carbon energy resources for its capacity expansion plan. Resources included solar, wind, geothermal, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) as well as emerging technologies: nuclear small modular reactors (SMR) and green hydrogen fuel. GWP plans to repower or replace all natural gas resources with clean firm generation by 2035. A 13-person Stakeholder Technical Advisory Group (STAG) as well as citizens through Community Townhalls contributed to the IRP.

Solari, in collaboration with GWP staff and Ascend analysts, researched, designed, and wrote an extensive IRP that met all of GWP’s goals. The IRP described GWP’s elaborate IRP planning process; the statutory, regulatory, and forecast drivers; its extensive energy efficiency initiatives as well as transmission and distribution constraints; and the portfolio analysis process and its results. The IRP concluded with recommendations and resultant action plans.