Accelerating Renewable Adoption With Smarter Design Practices

Renewable energy sources have become a central pillar of global electricity generation. In 2024, wind, solar and hydropower accounted for over 24% of U.S. electricity generation and more than 40% worldwide. With international organizations and local communities increasingly advocating for renewable energy sources, electric utilities face an urgent call to modernize infrastructure and meet aggressive sustainability goals.

But outdated design processes are significantly impeding the transition to renewables.

The Domino Effect of Design 

While most conversations about grid modernization center on hardware upgrades such as batteries, inverters, and control systems, one of the most significant roadblocks occurs well before construction begins: in the design phase.

Designing for renewable integration isn’t simply a technical step. It influences how quickly and efficiently grid modernization is achieved. Unfortunately, many still rely on manual workflows, siloed quality control, and redundant data entry. These outdated processes lead to costly errors, trigger rework, and delay project timelines. Design inefficiencies create a chain reaction of delays that impact every stage of a project timeline, including permitting, procurement, and construction.

Complexities Behind Renewable Integration

Bringing renewable energy into the grid is a complex undertaking. It’s not a simple “plug and play” task. It requires detailed system modeling, forecasting demand volatility, and adherence to meticulous specifications.

Tedious planning, spanning thousands of parts, points of connection, and precise calculations, is critical. Integrating planning with design lays the groundwork for a more streamlined and effective program deployment. Depending on the existing infrastructure, design considerations include additional transmission, topography, distance traveled, voltage, storage, and conversion. Each component incorporates specific standards, materials, and compliance risk that must be considered in the overarching design. Typical projects include miles of infrastructure, hundreds of elements, and a bill of materials with more than 50,000 pieces. 

Additionally, these projects necessitate a phased approach. Preliminary designs, including accurate system sketches, potential interconnection points, and site feasibility analyses, are subjected to rigorous permitting processes. Often involving multiple agencies, detailed technical review and strict regulator compliance, errors that prompt review resubmissions delay a project’s timeline.

Once permitted, final designs must lock in specifications for generation equipment (like PV systems or wind turbines), integration components (such as smart inverters), and new infrastructure (like substations, transmission lines and battery storage). Every detail matters. Errors at this stage can result in costly redesigns and procurement missteps, adding costs and time.

Leveraging Design for Project Acceleration

Inefficient design cycles can drag down even the most ambitious timelines. The average renewable project by electric utilities in the U.S. takes more than three years. Traditional design approaches, which include redundant data entry, disconnected spreadsheets, and manual material tallies, slow everything from procurement to construction. It also increases the likelihood of human error, from overlooked connection points to miscounted materials, with limited to no safety net for quality control.

By contrast, modernized design workflows integrated with digital modeling, automated validation, and collaborative tools can drastically improve productivity and accuracy. Seamless access to an accurate digital twin, enabled by smarter design practices, is essential for effective grid operations. With this approach, teams can reduce rework and avoid delays, improve procurement accuracy, reduce materials costs, and shorten construction timelines. 

Rethinking this one critical step can drastically increase productivity and reduce costs, enabling utilities to complete more renewable projects in less time. Tackling accurate design from the start lays the foundation for future grid expansion and electrification. Design modernization presents a significant opportunity against a backdrop where time-to-deployment directly affects resource allocation and climate impact.

Achieving Renewable Goals 

Meeting global energy goals, like the UN’s 2030 target for affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy, requires more than expanding renewable generation. It demands rethinking how utilities plan, design, and execute infrastructure projects from the ground up.

To keep pace with rising demand and shifting expectations, electric utilities must reassess their design strategies. By making the design phase faster and less error-prone, there is an opportunity to unlock significant gains downstream in cost savings, project speed, and environmental impact.

The future of renewable energy is not just about what we build, but how we build it. And it starts with design.

Brad Irwin is Vice President, Distribution Design at SBS.