As electricity demand accelerates and planning decisions increasingly lock in infrastructure for decades, the Club 20 Research & Education Foundation announced in a Jan. 29 news release it is launching a new Energy Impact Analysis designed to fundamentally improve how major U.S. electricity system options are compared over the long term.

The effort is being conducted in partnership with Purdue University, Purdue’s Applied Research Institute, KeyLogic and the State Utility Forecasting Group at Purdue University.

“Decisions are being made using studies that were never designed to compare options across full lifecycles or consistent time horizons,” said Matt Solomon, chairman and chief executive officer of the Club 20 Foundation. “This first-of-a-kind Energy Impact Analysis closes that gap by placing major electricity-system options on the same analytical footing and examining how they perform over decades.”

Long-term choices around power generation, grid infrastructure and demand management are increasingly being made under conditions of rapid technological change, rising electricity demand and evolving reliability requirements. Inconsistent assumptions across studies can obscure long-term costs, reliability risks and system tradeoffs, particularly as new technologies, large data centers and emerging demand profiles reshape electricity systems, the news release said.

The Energy Impact Analysis will evaluate major electricity generation, storage and demand-side options using a consistent lifecycle-based analytical framework, enabling comparison across systems that differ in cost structure, operating characteristics and longevity.

The study is designed to inform discussion among utilities, policymakers, regulators, technology developers, investors and communities without advancing the interests of any single technology, policy or market position.

“The Club 20 Foundation is excited to partner with Purdue, PARI, KeyLogics and other experts in the field,” said Wade Haerle, Executive Director of the Club 20 Foundation. “The Club 20 Foundation will be the lead fundraiser for the project, with a goal of raising $2 million to support this independent analysis.”

Many existing studies remain compartmentalized within individual technology sectors or institutional silos and are often designed to support specific planning, policy or investment objectives. The Energy Impact Analysis responds to a clear need for independent, third-party evaluation using consistent lifecycle boundaries, economic metrics and system-level assumptions.

“This analysis is designed to make long-term tradeoffs visible,” Solomon said, “particularly where costs, reliability and lifecycle responsibilities are often evaluated separately or over short time horizons.”

The analysis will not recommend specific policies, investments or technologies, nor will it advocate for or against any electricity-system option, the news release said. Its purpose is to improve long-term decision-making by exposing tradeoffs that are often hidden when costs, reliability, and lifecycle responsibilities are evaluated separately or over short time horizons.