Post by MS in Energy Systems Management - University of San Francisco

#ESMCapstoneSeries Today, ESM highlights IRP group Watts’ The Plan Consulting presented by shabnam ghaderishadbad, Lonjezo C. Pota, and Tristan Studer! Their IRP project focused on the Northern Indiana Public Service Company. Listed below is a brief abstract summary and research findings of their project. Abstract Summary This project presents an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) service territory, evaluating strategic pathways to manage future energy demand through the year 2050. NIPSCO faces a transformative shift in its traditional load profile driven by an unprecedented projected surge of 2.6 GW in new industrial data center demand by 2035, alongside evolving federal environmental mandates and coal decommissioning schedules. Utilizing a production cost model, this study evaluates the reliability, capital expenditures, and ratepayer impacts across three core scenarios: a market-driven, carbon-unconstrained "No Policy" reference case; an accelerated "Net Zero by 2040" scenario targeting full carbon neutrality; and a regional "Low Growth" sensitivity analysis. Research Findings The findings indicate that while absorbing the 2.6 GW load surge and achieving Net Zero by 2040 is technically viable, it demands an extraordinary resource deployment pace of 3 GW to 8 GW within a single decade, exposing the utility to severe supply chain pressures and elevated capital costs. Conversely, under low data center growth constraints where expansion tracks in megawatts rather than gigawatts, electricity rates increase substantially—up to $0.05/kWh higher than the No Policy baseline—due to the reduction in customer sales across which fixed infrastructure costs can be amortized. Additionally, the project evaluates sensitivities around data center load flexibility and multi-hour battery energy storage systems (BESS), illustrating that while aggressive clean energy expansion drives short-term rate peaks during buildout phases, it yields lower, more stable long-term energy costs for consumers. Well done Shabnam, Pota, and Tristan!