Why traditional distribution planning no longer works

Distribution planners today face a level of complexity that cannot be addressed with spreadsheets, static heuristics, or isolated studies:

  • Planning at scale across many futures: Load growth, DER adoption, electrification, and flexibility assumptions create an explosion of possible scenarios. Plans must be continuously updated as assumptions evolve.
  • From single upgrades to coordinated system strategies: Traditional reinforcements, flexible assets, and non-wires alternatives must be evaluated together — including their interactions, timing, and long-term impact on grid performance.
  • Technical consistency across scenarios and iterations: As scenario-driven planning becomes the norm, ensuring consistent, repeatable, and technically sound analysis across iterations is increasingly difficult with fragmented tools and data.
  • Regulatory-ready, auditable outcomes: Utilities must demonstrate that alternatives were systematically tested, load-flow–based technical analysis was applied, and trade-offs were evaluated transparently under growing regulatory scrutiny.

A fundamentally new approach to strategic grid planning

Strategic Grid Planner addresses these challenges by enabling utilities to systematically create, evaluate, and refine long-term distribution plans at scale. Strategic Grid Planner is grounded in load-flow–based analysis and powered by self-learning algorithms that help explore and narrow down thousands of possible scenarios. Instead of manually defining a limited set of options, planners guide an automated process that continuously improves recommendations based on technical feasibility and economic performance.

The result is planning that scales with complexity — without sacrificing engineering rigor or regulatory confidence.

Connecting long-term and operational distribution planning

Utilities are required to proactively identify upgrade needs, assess flexibility options, and improve planning processes. Endless spreadsheets are no longer enough, and the full potential of grid upgrade plans often remains untapped. What’s missing is an efficient end-to-end process that connects strategic long-term distribution planning and operational planning. 

The Strategic Grid Planner closes this gap through bidirectional integration within the envelio Intelligent Grid Platform (IGP):

  • Strategic plans feed operational planning: Future grid states, upgrade pathways, and scenarios are directly transferred into operational grid planning workflows, ensuring short-term measures align with long-term objectives
  • Operational insights improve long-term plans: Results from operational studies flow back into strategic planning, continuously validating and updating future grid models.

This creates validated, actionable, and always up-to-date future grid models — reducing rework, increasing planning efficiency, and unlocking the full value of long-term grid development strategies.

What you can use the Strategic Grid Planner for:

Build technically sound, cost-optimized future distribution grid plans across multiple years, compare planning options transparently, and prioritize measures based on technical, regulatory, and economic criteria.

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Creating and managing future distribution grid plans

Start your workflow with a central overview of all strategic grid planning projects. Quickly find projects using filters – by planning horizon, network area, or status – or access your most recently edited plans directly.

Creating a new future grid plan begins by selecting the current network state, defining the planning horizon, and optionally importing a future DER and load growth scenario – manually in the IGP or via API. Map and allocate the scenarios to your model with automated distribution methods or node-specific allocations for new loads or generation. All planning states are versioned, with full history and clear documentation of decisions.

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AI-based algorithm to generate optimal future grid planning options

For efficient assessment of potential future grid planning options, Strategic Grid Planner combines heuristic methods with load-flow–based technical simulations. The AI-based algorithm continuously learns from each planning step: it systematically analyzes successful expansion strategies, identifies patterns and dependencies across measures, and generates increasingly precise recommendations with every iteration.

A learning-based prioritization approach focuses simulations on technically and economically promising options, balancing computational effort with result quality – ideal for large networks and complex planning scenarios.

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Easy and flexible milestone year analysis (e.g., 2030, 2035, 2045)

With the Strategic Grid Planner, you can run consecutive milestone year analyses to systematically develop long-term upgrade pathways.

Planners can:

  • Identify future upgrade needs early
  • Compare alternative development paths
  • Derive robust, regulator-ready investment decisions

You can simulate different best- and worst-case scenarios by flexibly switching between different load and DER growth scenarios for target years. These scenarios are created and managed in the Grid Scenario Simulator app, and you can update the underlying planning assumptions at any time as new insights emerge. This makes milestone year analysis an integral part of scalable, transparent, and compliant strategic grid planning.

Combined with the Grid Connection Study app, SGP also supports cluster studies and constraint mitigation, providing a strong foundation for digitizing technical review processes used by U.S. utilities.

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Transparent analysis, evaluation, and manual fine-tuning of automated measures

All automatically proposed measures are clearly visualized for structured review. Individual measures or entire groups can be manually adjusted, grouped, or prioritized over time. You can also compare different future grid planning options directly and seamlessly transfer them into downstream planning or decision-making processes. This ensures the right balance between automation and engineering judgment.

Here’s how the Strategic Grid Planner supports you in your work

 

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Automation of complex planning processes

Algorithm-driven load-flow–based grid optimization replaces heuristic-driven planning.

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Cost-efficient and robust expansion decisions

Evaluation and comparison of different options and scenarios that balance cost, reliability, and flexibility.

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Auditability and regulatory confidence

Versioning, transparency and automated documentation support regulatory compliance.

Conclusion: One continuous, platform-based planning process

Rather than isolated point solutions, the envelio Strategic Grid Planner is part of the Intelligent Grid Platform. It builds on a shared digital twin, common simulation engine, and standardized integrations (e.g., GIS, ADMS, asset and planning systems).

Together with applications such as Grid Connection Study, SGP enables utilities to:

  • Reuse models, assumptions, and results across planning levels
  • Ensure consistency from strategic planning to connection studies and operational assessments
  • Scale planning processes across departments and use cases

Optional manual adjustments complement automation, following an engineering-first approach that gives planners full control while benefiting from algorithmic support.