New CATF report identifies how states in deregulated power markets can achieve long-term clean energy goals with state-led planning and procurement
A new report from Clean Air Task Force (CATF) identifies how establishing state-led planning and procurement can help state governments in deregulated electricity markets meet their power sector decarbonization goals and lays out the components needed to put that planning in action.
Cutting power sector carbon emissions quickly and affordably requires the addition of long-lead-time technologies that are prone to development barriers, such as nuclear energy, geothermal, and long-duration energy storage. While market prices and clean electricity standards have done much to advance clean power deployment in deregulated electricity markets, they do not provide sufficient incentives to support projects with longer development timelines and do not clear the non-cost hurdles that stall projects’ development. State-led planning and procurement offers an effective policy option for states to an overcome these barriers.
“Wholesale markets have done well to reduce costs, deploy clean energy, increase reliability and resiliency, and encourage regional grid expansion, but they were never designed to develop all of the solutions needed to achieve ambitious clean energy goals,” said Kasparas Spokas, Director of CATF’s Electricity Program and a co-author of the report. “States in deregulated markets with clean energy targets need a way to supplement the market’s inherent shortsightedness and proactively identify what the electricity system needs years in advance, procure long-lead time technologies, and address development barriers. State-led planning and procurement can give states the capacity to do that while keeping the benefits of competitive electricity markets.”
State-led planning and procurement will differ from state to state, but the report identifies three components as necessary:
- System needs assessments: Periodic, proactive, scenario-based assessments to identify long-term system needs and gaps in market-driven development.
- Technology development roadmaps: Roadmaps that identify, characterize, and offer strategies and policy solutions to address technology development and investment barriers.
- Development mandates or state-led procurement: State-mandated procurement targets or direct state procurement of resources assessed to have long-term value, providing revenue certainty for investors not present in existing market-based mechanisms.
Together, these activities form an iterative cycle in which clean electricity standards define the goal and drive near-term deployment, while state-led planning establishes long-term plans and market-driven development and state-led or -directed procurement ensure development of the projects needed to close the gap on decarbonization quickly and affordably.
Illinois is the most recent state to put this approach into practice. Its Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, enacted in January 2026, makes Illinois the first deregulated state to implement comprehensive, actionable state-led integrated resource planning. Under the law, the state will study its power system through 2045, with an initial plan due by November 2026 that will directly inform the Illinois Power Agency’s procurements, state advocacy positions, and transmission planning.
The report also points to California and New York as states with existing state-led planning in place, drawing on lessons from their hybrid market approaches. New York, for example, has published a state-led energy storage roadmap to assess development needs and barriers, along with a Blueprint for Consideration of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technologies that identified deployment barriers in the state; New York is now developing a Master Plan for Responsible Advanced Nuclear Development in response.
Read the full report here.
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About Clean Air Task Force
Clean Air Task Force (CATF) is a global nonprofit organization working to safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid development and deployment of low-carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies. With 30 years of internationally recognized expertise on climate policy and a fierce commitment to exploring all potential solutions, CATF is a pragmatic, non-ideological advocacy group with the bold ideas needed to address climate change. CATF has offices in Boston, Washington D.C., and Brussels, with staff working virtually around the world. Visit catf.us and follow @cleanaircatf.
