How TSOs Are Cutting Risk and Accelerating the Energy Transition
Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are under unprecedented pressure. They must expand network capacity, integrate renewables, and harden infrastructure, all while delivering against climate targets and justifying every euro or pound of spend. The challenge isn’t a lack of ambition—it’s making the right decisions about where, when, and how to invest.
This is where IFS Copperleaf® comes in. By providing a decision intelligence layer that brings together asset data, financials, and strategy, it helps TSOs build investment plans that are both defensible and optimized.
The investment dilemma facing TSOs
Across Europe, transmission grids are being asked to do more than ever before:
- Expansion at speed. ENTSO-E’s latest ten-year plan points to hundreds of new reinforcement and interconnection projects required this decade.
- Funding shortfalls. With a multi-hundred-billion-euro gap, operators cannot afford mis-sequenced or low-value projects.
- Outage bottlenecks. Construction windows are limited and increasingly contested.
- Scrutiny on value. Regulators such as Ofgem expect transparent, auditable business cases under RIIO-2 and beyond.
- Energy transition complexity. Legacy gas infrastructure must be managed alongside new hydrogen networks and cross-border interconnectors.
Against this backdrop, the question for every TSO board is: how do we extract maximum value from constrained capital and scarce resources?
Decision intelligence in practice
IFS Copperleaf equips TSOs to:
- Compare very different projects on equal terms by monetizing risk, benefit, and strategic alignment.
- Optimize investment portfolios under real-world constraints such as outage slots, resource limits, and dependencies.
- Maintain a transparent line from corporate objectives down to asset-level interventions, making regulatory reviews smoother.
- Keep plans “alive” by integrating directly with EAM, GIS, finance, and condition monitoring data.
Proven impact across leading TSOs
National Gas Transmission (UK)
NGT faced the challenge of long-lived, geographically dispersed gas assets and strict regulatory requirements. By embedding IFS Copperleaf Asset™ and Portfolio™, it replaced siloed planning processes with a unified, risk-based approach.
- Delivered ~4% capital efficiency, equating to £11 million per year in savings.
- Strengthened asset risk management and portfolio agility.
- Built stronger regulatory confidence with traceable investment justifications.
“We now have synergies between our data and departments, and a stronger ability to justify investment decisions,” said NGT’s Portfolio Planning Manager.
Gasunie (Netherlands & Germany)
Gasunie is repositioning itself as a multi-energy transport company, with hydrogen as a cornerstone of its future strategy. Traditional spreadsheet-driven planning was not enough for this scale of change.
- With IFS Copperleaf, Gasunie now uses AI-assisted, risk-based planning.
- Over 600,000 pipeline segments are modeled at 20-meter granularity, enabling precise interventions.
- A single value framework ensures investments are consistent, transparent, and defensible—vital for securing stakeholder and regulatory approval.
This approach has given Gasunie the confidence to scale its Dutch hydrogen backbone while minimizing unnecessary expenditure.
National Grid Electricity Transmission (UK)
With tens of thousands of assets and constrained outage windows, NGET needed a smarter way to schedule work. In partnership with IFS Copperleaf, it introduced circuit optimization (“intelligent bundling”) to group interventions more effectively.
- Achieved a 270% increase in plan value.
- Cut outage setup costs by £2.5 million annually.
- Reduced portfolio planning cycles from 12 weeks to just 6 weeks.
- Increased productivity by delivering more interventions per outage window.
The result: better use of scarce outages, fewer disruptions, and higher value extracted from the same investment envelope.
Why this matters now
Grid operators are no longer judged only on technical delivery—they are assessed on decision quality. Being able to demonstrate that every project is the best possible use of funds is now a regulatory and strategic necessity.
With IFS Copperleaf, TSOs are proving that they can cut costs, reduce risk, and accelerate transition projects without over-stretching resources.
Where to start
The most effective entry point is a pilot on a priority corridor or asset class. By running optimized and “as-planned” scenarios side by side, operators can quantify the uplift quickly and build a strong business case for scaling across the enterprise.
👉Read more