Utilities are operating in an increasingly complex regulatory environment—today, the quality of a capital plan alone is no longer enough to ensure successful cost recovery.
We dug into this challenge during a recent Energy Central webinar sponsored by IFS Copperleaf.
Mahsa Karimi and Patrick Lecron of IFS Copperleaf explored how utilities can strengthen their defense of investment decisions, respond to regulatory challenges, and leverage AI-driven tools to navigate growing scrutiny.
Why Defensibility Matters More Than Ever
The discussion highlighted how regulatory proceedings have become increasingly challenging for utilities. Organizations are expected to develop sound investment plans and explain exactly how and why those decisions were made—sometimes, years later. This adds to the unprecedented pressures faced by utilities today, including affordability concerns, evolving regulatory priorities, and increased stakeholder involvement.
Last year, Patrick Lecron noted that U.S. utilities lost more than $100 billion in capital recovery during discovery processes. The main drivers:
Difficulties responding to information requests
Inconsistencies in supporting narratives
Challenges defending decisions under scrutiny
Now, these losses may only grow as interveners and regulatory bodies increasingly turn to their own AI tools to identify weaknesses in filings.
The conversation made it clear: The challenge is no longer just creating a strong plan. Utilities must also be prepared to defend that plan throughout an increasingly rigorous regulatory process.
The Growing Challenge of Defending Capital Plans
Throughout the session, attendees discussed the realities faced by many utilities during rate cases and discovery proceedings.
A common pain point: Capital plans begin evolving almost immediately after they are filed. Projects change, assumptions shift, and priorities are updated. Yet regulatory teams are often asked to defend decisions based on a historical version of the plan months (or years) later.
This creates significant pressure when information requests arrive. Teams must quickly locate supporting documentation, align stakeholders across departments, and ensure responses remain consistent with the original filing.
The audience found these concerns most pressing during the discovery process:
Responding quickly to information requests
Maintaining narrative consistency
Anticipating how plans will be judged later
The main challenge is rarely a lack of information. Instead, organizations often struggle to connect information across planning, engineering, regulatory, and legal teams quickly enough to provide confident, evidence-backed responses.
This becomes even more difficult as regulatory expectations shift. Teams are expected to react quickly to new rulings, legislative changes, and shifting priorities while maintaining alignment across multiple departments. In many cases, valuable context and decision rationale become fragmented over time. This makes it harder to tell a consistent story when questions arise.
Connecting Planning Decisions to Regulatory Defense
For utilities looking to synchronize planning activities with the realities of regulatory review, the presenters argued that planning and defense should be considered part of a continuous process.
They noted that organizations can significantly improve planning defense by understanding emerging regulatory signals, preserving decision rationale, and maintaining a clear record of how investments were prioritized.
To support this approach, IFS Copperleaf introduced its Asset Investment Planning solution. It’s designed to help utilities monitor changing regulatory conditions while streamlining the discovery response process.
The platform combines regulatory monitoring with capital planning data, allowing teams to better understand where potential exposure exists and how changing regulatory priorities could impact investment decisions.
During discovery, the platform helps teams move from information request to evidence-backed response faster—surfacing supporting documentation, drafting responses, and routing them through review, all with a complete audit trail.
Importantly, all responses remain grounded in documented evidence, helping organizations maintain trust and defensibility throughout the process.
But AI is not intended to replace regulatory expertise, the discussion emphasized. Instead, it can help teams respond more efficiently, maintain consistency, and navigate increasingly complex regulatory processes.
Looking Ahead
The presenters pointed to a broader shift across the utility industry: More organizations are ensuring that every investment can be supported by evidence, communicated with confidence, and defended when it matters most.
As regulatory expectations continue to evolve, utilities that can connect planning decisions to a clear, defensible narrative will be best positioned for success. In the years ahead, the question will not simply be whether a utility has made the right decision. It will be whether it can prove it. That's the case IFS Copperleaf's approach is built to support—connecting planning, risk, and evidence so utilities can tell that story with confidence, whenever it's asked.
Interested in learning more? Watch the replay now.