Overview

• Bill requires the Secretary of Energy to develop and publish guidelines for integrated resource planning of electricity systems within 2 years of enactment.
• Creates the Integrated Resource Planning Modernization Grants Program to fund state adoption of these planning practices.
• Status: Introduced in House on November 7, 2025, referred to Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Who does this affect?

• Main groups: State public utility commissions, state energy offices, electric utilities (investor-owned, municipal, and cooperatives), transmission organizations, electricity consumers.
• Who benefits: States receive federal grants to modernize electricity planning. Utilities get technical assistance and potential cost recovery for compliance. Consumers benefit from improved grid reliability and resource adequacy.
• Teen impact score: 5/10 (indirect impact via family electricity costs and grid reliability)

What This Bill Does

• Guidelines must address capacity expansion modeling, resource adequacy analysis, transmission planning, interregional coordination, scenario analysis using probabilistic models, extreme weather projections, and capacity accreditation methods.
• States can apply for grants starting 6 months after guidelines are published. Grant amounts determined by factors including number of electricity consumers, infrastructure capacity, comprehensiveness of state implementation plan, and whether state already requires integrated resource planning.
• Vertically integrated states must use grants to develop or update planning requirements consistent with federal guidelines, support regulated utilities with compliance, and may pay for consultants, staffing, software, and stakeholder engagement.
• Restructured states must coordinate with utilities and transmission organizations to develop integrated resource planning strategies, with similar allowable expenses.
• States must submit progress reports within 2 years of receiving grants and use all grant funds within 5 years.
• Secretary must evaluate and revise guidelines every 5 years and submit congressional reports every 5 years on grant program effectiveness.

Legislative Status

• Introduced November 7, 2025 by Rep. Leger Fernandez, Rep. Case, and Rep. Thanedar.
• Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

In short

• Department of Energy creates national guidelines for how states plan electricity systems, covering generation, storage, transmission, and demand management.
• Federal grants help states adopt modern planning practices that account for extreme weather, renewable energy, and grid reliability.
• States must report progress within 2 years and complete implementation within 5 years of receiving grants.
• Guidelines get updated every 5 years to reflect new technologies and challenges.
• Technical assistance includes workshops, training, and education materials for state regulators and utilities.

Why should I care?

Electricity planning affects household power bills and grid reliability during extreme weather. When states plan poorly, blackouts happen during heat waves or winter storms. This bill pushes states to use better forecasting methods that account for climate change, renewable energy growth, and battery storage. Federal grants reduce the financial burden on states to upgrade their planning processes. Better planning means fewer outages, lower long-term costs, and a grid that handles future electricity demand from electric vehicles and data centers. The 5-year implementation timeline and mandatory progress reports create accountability for how federal money gets spent.