The State of Utility Planning, 2025 Q3

The RMI report 'The State of Utility Planning, 2025 Q3' analyzes integrated resource plans (IRPs) for electric utilities across the United States. It finds that utilities are increasing projected load and emissions through 2035, driven by large new loads like data centers and uncertainties in policy and regulation. This has led to a trend of delaying fossil fuel plant retirements to ensure resource adequacy, creating a gap between current utility plans and the net-zero emissions targets required for climate alignment.

• Utilities updating their IRPs in 2025 Q3 increased their projected load through 2035 by 2.1 percent and their projected emissions by 5.5 percent. This marks the ninth consecutive quarter of at least 2.1 percent load growth and the seventh consecutive quarter of at least 3.2 percent increase to projected cumulative emissions among updating companies.
• Projected electricity load across the U.S. is expected to grow 24 percent by 2035 compared to 2023 levels, a significant increase from the 12 percent projection at the end of 2023. This growth is primarily driven by large loads, such as data centers, and is characterized by high uncertainty; for example, Santee Cooper's IRP shows a potential new large load range between 101 and 1,536 MW.
• To ensure resource adequacy amid limited available capacity and planning uncertainty, many utilities are delaying the retirement of existing fossil fuel plants, often converting them from solid fuels to gas. Other factors influencing capacity plans include the phase-out of federal renewable tax credits, MISO's shift to seasonal accreditation, and EPA greenhouse gas regulations.
• There is a significant gap between utility projections and climate targets. While the IEA Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario suggests the electricity sector reach net-zero by 2035, current IRPs project emissions to be reduced by only 53 percent by 2035 compared to a 2005 baseline. Even if utilities meet their own targets, emissions would only be reduced by 63 percent by 2035 relative to 2005.
• Planned capacity in U.S. IRPs between 2023 and 2035 includes 259 GW of wind and solar additions, 103 GW of gas additions, and 74 GW of coal retirements. One specific example of clean repowering is Cleco Power using MISO's generator replacement process to add 240 MW at the site of the retired Dolet Hills coal plant.

APA

RMI (2025). The State of Utility Planning, 2025 Q3. https://rmi.org/resources/the-state-of-utility-planning-2025-q3/

Chicago

RMI. The State of Utility Planning, 2025 Q3. 2025. https://rmi.org/resources/the-state-of-utility-planning-2025-q3/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=The State of Utility Planning, 2025 Q3 |date=15 October 2025 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/the-state-of-utility-planning-2025-q3/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2025state, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{The State of Utility Planning, 2025 Q3}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/the-state-of-utility-planning-2025-q3/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }