Industry

Grid Capital Planning

Grid Capital Planning

As grid investments grow, so do stakeholder expectations. We help you assess funding trade-offs and develop an optimal grid strategy.

Our Impact

40%
reduction in the duration of customer outages
25%
increase in results for the same CapEx
10%
reduction in maintenance expenses

Grid capital planning is more challenging than ever: Significant load growth, expanding renewables penetration, increasingly frequent environmental events, and the need to enable the energy transition while meeting more stringent requirements for safety, reliability, and low cost are just some of the daunting factors to consider.  

Traditional approaches, such as software-centric solutions or siloed plans based on asset or category, are no longer sufficient. And “take it or leave it” plans are unlikely to gain approval without extensive data analysis and the ability to clearly articulate the tradeoffs and rationale.

Instead, utilities need a holistic, capital-efficient plan that meets the needs of customers and fits their overall strategy, one that rethinks the end-to-end planning process and addresses circuits, substations, and lines, not to mention increased regulatory scrutiny.

Why Bain

Our proprietary, battle-tested approach ensures seamless integration of your grid strategy into your investment plan. It fosters powerful synergy between your teams and data, optimizing grid investments across the asset lifecycle and enabling the development of new capabilities instead of industrializing old ones. And we help you get results fast: Just six months or less from the initial assessment of value at stake to the formulation of an investible annual plan.

We’ll also help you set a new standard in executive decision-making, enabling you to link overall strategy to customer-centric outcomes and develop capital scenarios more quickly than ever.  We have successfully partnered with top investor-owned utilities to develop and secure regulatory approval for grid capital plans that significantly enhance the overall customer experience and which can be integrated into your existing work management system.

 

Integrated Grid Planning Delivers Significant Results

Integrated Grid Planning Delivers Significant Results

All three companies achieved a 20%+ improvement in capital efficiency

Our work focused on future grid strategy (2050+) and near-term distribution grid plan development. A $20 billion 10-year plan was approved. Other notable benefits:

We addressed customer-centric distribution grid plan development and execution support. A $5+ billion plan was approved for the next 12 years. Other notable benefits:

We applied advanced analytics to optimize resilience as part of our work in helping the utility develop its distribution grid capital plan, a project that entailed $2+ billion per year in capex across four states. Other notable benefits:

Our Client Results in Grid Capital Planning

A Closer Look

Our Grid Consulting Team

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We work with ambitious leaders who want to define the future, not hide from it. Together, we achieve extraordinary outcomes.