IMEA

An Integrated Resource Plan: Charting our direction for a reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy future

An Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) can be thought of as a compass setting the direction for meeting future projected energy and demand requirements. The IRP provides an instrument that will allow IMEA to evaluate various pathways to reliably and affordably serve our member municipalities while adapting to a rapidly evolving energy landscape. This is a foundational planning document that will combine stakeholder input with rigorous financial analyses and projections. Together, these inputs will help guide IMEA’s future investment portfolio decisions to support affordable power while maintaining a reliable system and considering associated risks and benefits to our member residents.

Questions the IRP can help us answer:

  • What is the expected resource landscape over the next five to 20 years?
  • What are the tradeoffs associated with different resource decisions (retirement dates, types, and quantities of new resources)?
  • Ultimately, what are the resource portfolio options, including timing and scale of additions and retirements that appropriately balance the IMEA Board's planning objectives?

Examples of topics that the IRP is not equipped to address:

  • Siting of new resources and associated site-specific considerations
  • Specifics of resource procurement, including procurement mechanisms, contract structures, etc.
  • Optimal policy and regulatory structures

The IRP will:

  • Establish planning assumptions
    • Use up-to-date inputs and assumptions
    • Use accurate assumptions for costs of new resources
    • Include realistic assumptions about resource availability timing
    • Use reasonable market interaction assumptions
    • Ensure thoughtful and consistent assumptions for demand-side resources, incorporating relevant benefits
  • Develop forecasts
    • Develop forecasts for expected future scenarios concerning energy demand, pricing and availability of resources
    • Incorporate electrification; distributed generation and storage
    • Plan ahead for large growth
  • Describe various future trajectories
    • Develop a short term (5-year) preferred resource portfolio based on a 20-year look at how the utility can cost-effectively serve member communities
  • Identify needs and a range of possible solutions to address the needs
    • Consider factors such as rapidly evolving technologies
    • Consider concerns and regional transmission organization requirements for reliability and resilience
  • Evaluate and apply criteria through modeling scenarios to determine preferred solutions
    • Model a base case that allows for easy comparison
    • Model inputs to meet the IMEA Sustainability Plan goals and Climate & Equitable Job Act (CEJA) law requirements
    • Communicate transparently to IMEA Board and stakeholders
    • Meet state law and regulatory requirements 
  • Integrate into our IMEA Board deliberations
    • The IRP does not mandate any specific resource decision, instead the IRP is a tool to inform portfolio planning
    • All final resource decisions will be made by the IMEA Board
    • The IRP is built using a transparent planning process to help make informed, community-focused recommendations for the future

    Transparency

    The IRP will engage stakeholders throughout, including:

    • Soliciting opinions on important energy issues
    • Providing insight into the scenarios and inputs planned before the modeling process begins
    • Developing and sharing preliminary IRP results to allow stakeholders to preview and understand the document
    • Offering the opportunity for stakeholders to provide feedback throughout the process which will help inform refinements ahead of a final integrated resource plan document 

    Stakeholders should note that this page will serve as the central source for all information related to IMEA's IRP.
     
    All future communication will be posted here, www.imea.org/irp.html.
    • The Illinois Municipal Electric Agency’s Board of Directors directed the agency to issue a solicitation of Request for Proposals (RFP) for a consulting group to assist with developing an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). On July 1, 2026, IMEA issued its RFP seeking qualified IRP consulting groups.

    IMEA Request for Proposal Interested parties should submit a proposal to IMEA.IRP.RFP@imea.org by August 7, 2026.