CRA Helps NIPSCO Develop Their 2018 Integrated Resource Plan

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BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Charles River Associates (NASDAQ: CRAI), a worldwide leader in providing economic, financial, and management consulting services, today announced CRA supported Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) in the development of its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which calls for the retirement of 1600 MW of coal by 2023 and replacement with a combination of renewables, storage, and demand-side measures.

NIPSCO held its final stakeholder meeting on October 18 to describe its Preferred Plan ahead of filing its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) at the end of October. The plan calls for the retirement of all four units at the Schahfer coal plant in 2023, with new replacement capacity from wind, solar and solar plus storage resources, and demand side management and energy efficiency programs.

CRA played an integral role in evaluating supply and demand-side resource options. According to CRA Vice President Jim McMahon, âNIPSCO was facing a set of challenging questions around whether to maintain or modify its generation portfolio. Our team helped bring a highly quantitative and robust approach to evaluating both supply and demand-side options to NIPSCOâs challenge. This included conducting stochastic analysis around resource plan uncertainties and increasing transparency in the way in which commodity price forecasts were developed.â

In addition to resource planning, CRAâs work included running an all source RFP to identify market-based costs for different resource types. According to CRA Vice President Bob Lee, âGiven the rapidly changing cost of renewables and storage, an RFP process was important to establishing accurate pricing for these technologies as they were being considered in the IRP.â

CRA also played an important role in stakeholder engagement, leading many of the group and one-on-one sessions with various interested parties. According to CRA Principal Pat Augustine, âThe questions on the table in NIPSCOâs IRP are such that numerous stakeholder groups participated actively. The key was ensuring that each viewpoint was heard and that we accommodated any stakeholder requested analysis as best we could. CRA worked directly with stakeholders and brought credibility to that important part of the IRP process.â

Following filing of its IRP, NIPSCO intends to initiate the retirement process at the Schahfer plant, select replacement projects identified from the RFP evaluation process, prioritize resources that have expiring federal tax incentives to achieve lowest customer cost, and file for Certificate(s) of Public Convenience and Necessity for the selected replacement projects.

About CRA's Energy Practice
CRAâs Energy Practice blends decades of industry knowledge with world-class economic and analytical expertise. Investors, executives, and litigators from across the energy sector have turned to CRA for expert advice in hundreds of successful engagements. CRAâs expertise is grounded in a comprehensive understanding of the energy sector, including electricity and gas markets, litigation and regulatory support, market analytics and strategy, energy asset and enterprise valuation, and energy trading and risk management.

About Charles River Associates (CRA)
Charles River AssociatesÂ® is a global consulting firm specializing in economic, financial, and management consulting services. CRA advises clients on economic and financial matters pertaining to litigation and regulatory proceedings, and guides corporations through critical business strategy and performance-related issues. Since 1965, clients have engaged CRA for its unique combination of functional expertise and industry knowledge, and for its objective solutions to complex problems. Headquartered in Boston, CRA has offices throughout the world. Detailed information about Charles River Associates, a registered trade name of CRA International, Inc., is available at www.crai.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.