This manual is designed to provide guidance to state consumer advocates and other state consumer groups interested in either initiating and/or participating in an Least-Cost Utility Planning (LCUP) process in their state. Least cost utility planning examined primarily as a regulatory framework to be implemented by an appropriate state authority -- usually the public utility commission -- for the benefit of the state's citizens and electric utility customers. LCUP is also a planning process to be used by investor owned and public utilities to select, support and justify future expenditures in resource additions. This manual is designed as a ''How-To'' manual for implementing and participating in a statewide LCUP process. Its goal is to guide the reader through the LCUP maze so that meaningful, forward-looking, and cost minimizing electric utility planning can be initiated and sustained in your state.

This manual is designed to provide guidance to state consumer advocates and other state consumer groups interested in either initiating and/or participating in an Least-Cost Utility Planning (LCUP) process in their state. Least cost utility planning examined primarily as a regulatory framework to be implemented by an appropriate state authority -- usually the public utility commission -- for the benefit of the state's citizens and electric utility customers. LCUP is also a planning process to be used by investor owned and public utilities to select, support and justify future expenditures in resource additions. This manual is designed as a How-To'' manual for implementing and participating in a statewide LCUP process. Its goal is to guide the reader through the LCUP maze so that meaningful, forward-looking, and cost minimizing electric utility planning can be initiated and sustained in your state.

A Manual for the Economic Evaluation of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Technologies provides guidance on economic evaluation approaches, metrics, and levels of detail required, while offering a consistent basis on which analysts can perform analyses using standard assumptions and bases. It not only provides information on the primary economic measures used in economic analyses and the fundamentals of finance but also provides guidance focused on the special considerations required in the economic evaluation of energy efficiency and renewable energy systems.

The recent track record of ''traditional'' electricity planning, which entails selection of supply side resources to meet forecasted demand, has not been good. There are numerous examples of utilities incorrectly forecasting demand and over-building generating capacity while others underestimated growth and have had to cut demand and find alternate power sources to avoid outages. A potential solution to this problem is the continuing development of Least Cost Utility Plannning (LCUP). Regulatory commissions, consumer advocates and utilities are increasingly relying an LCUP as the most responsible way to avoid construction of new capacity and alleviate anticipated shortages caused by cancellation of construction projects, load growth, or natural replacement of aging capacity. The purpose of this report is to provide municipalities a starting point for evaluating their servicing utilities or states' least cost plan. This was accomplished by: Identifying key issues in LCUP; reviewing examples of the collaborative and classic approaches to LCUP in Illinois, California, New York State and Michigan; cataloging municipal authorities and strategies which can influence or support LCUP activities. Results of the project indicate that through a basic understanding of LCUP processes and issues, municipalities will be in a better position to influence plans or, if necessary, intervene in regulatory proceedings where plans are adopted. Constraints to municipal involvement in LCUP include statutory limitations, resource constraints, and a lack of knowledge of indirect authorities that support the LCUP process.