envelio Launches Strategic Grid Planner to Enable Automated, Validated Multi-Year Utility Grid Planning

BOSTON, Jan. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- envelio, Europe's leading smart grid software provider, is expanding the Intelligent Grid Platform (IGP) with the "Strategic Grid Planner" to support end-to-end, load-flow–based system planning. This new software application enables grid operators to design technically sound and cost-effective grid plans for future target years (e.g., 2030, 2035, and 2045).

• Optimized planning at scale made possible: Strategic Grid Planner enables utilities to generate and validate system plans by evaluating thousands of technically feasible and economically optimized alternatives across defined planning horizons.
• Algorithmic, automated: AI-based optimization, high-performance simulation, and advanced network modeling coordinate decisions across planning years and enable defensible, cost-efficient outcomes.

Distributed generation, battery storage systems, EV charging infrastructure, and rapidly evolving load profiles are fundamentally outpacing traditional distribution planning methods. Utilities are required to make multi-billion-dollar investment decisions under technical and economic complexity, without tools capable of systematically evaluating the full range of viable system options.

Strategic Grid Planner changes this. It enables distribution utilities to proactively design and validate coordinated, multi-year grid development plans by algorithmically evaluating thousands of technically feasible and economically optimized alternatives. Developed by envelio, Strategic Grid Planner establishes a new standard for forward-looking distribution system planning and enables defensible investment decisions that maintain affordability and reliability as grid complexity accelerates.

Luigi Montana, CEO of envelio Inc., explains: "The current pace of change in the distribution grid is unprecedented. This results in more complexity, more uncertainty, and more volatility. System planning is a major lever as the decisions made today will affect the next 5-20 years and beyond. But today's approach to system planning was not designed for the current complexity and volatility. A new approach is needed to plan continuously, assess thousands of alternatives, and leverage technology to find optimal solutions. Without such measures, costs could escalate rapidly and threaten reliability, affordability, and sustainability goals. The Strategic Grid Planner supports grid planners by enabling fast, well-informed decisions and providing a powerful tool for designing resource-efficient, future-proof grids."

Year-specific Planning and Comparison of Grid Measures

The new digital tool complements the IGP, a digital toolbox where grid operators can find all the resources they need for grid operation, control, and planning. The Strategic Grid Planner automatically generates grid expansion plans, compares variants, and assesses costs for various future grid scenarios. It evaluates solutions in a defined order, considering grid optimization first, followed by flexibility, reinforcement, and finally expansion. For instance, the app enables the comprehensive switch state optimization across the entire primary network to exhaust optimization of load balancing before considering system upgrades.

The Strategic Grid Planner application can also support cluster-study–related analyses by enabling scalable, scenario-based evaluation of multiple interconnection requests within a shared network context, providing a strong foundation for digitizing and automating technical review processes used by U.S. utilities.

Better Decisions with AI: A Self-learning Algorithm

At the core of Strategic Grid Planner is a self-learning, AI-based algorithm that continuously adapts and improves based on insights gained from each planning scenario. It systematically analyzes successful grid expansion strategies, recognizes patterns and dependencies between different expansion measures, and generates more precise solution proposals based on these findings with each iteration. The system can predict the quality of potential grid expansion, saving resources and time. Depending on user requirements, the algorithm can be applied across the entire planning workflow or targeted to specific sub-steps. Grid planners can manually revise designs generated by the software application.

Further information and details about the IGP and the Strategic Grid Planner can be found here.

About envelio Inc.: 

envelio, Inc. delivers software that helps electric utilities plan, interconnect, and operate distribution grids more efficiently and with greater transparency. Its Intelligent Grid Platform, used by more than 80 utilities worldwide, provides computable distribution grid models to support hosting capacity analysis, interconnection studies, load flow analysis, and grid upgrade planning. Founded in Boston in May 2024, envelio, Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of envelio GmbH, an award-winning energy software company. Envelio GmbH, founded in 2017, is based in Cologne, Germany.

About the Intelligent Grid Platform (IGP): 

envelio's Intelligent Grid Platform (IGP) is a comprehensive software solution for the efficient planning and operational management of power grids. It provides a digital twin that processes, harmonizes, and visualizes existing data. As the need for grid investment and complexity increases amid a growing number of interconnections, the platform's holistic approach ensures that grid data and planning drive effective investments, enhance grid reliability, and enable scalable processes. Thanks to the modular architecture of the award-winning software, it adapts to grid operators of all sizes, making it a unique solution to the challenges of decentralized energy supply and distribution grid expansion. envelio's IGP empowers grid operators to optimize and automate processes, laying the foundation for a rapid and decentralized global energy transition.

SOURCE envelio, Inc.