In the last quarter of the 20th century, many power companies used the integrated resource planning (IRP) approach in power expansion planning. Today, very few power companies use this approach because of the split between the power generation and distribution activities. It seems that, in some countries, long-term power system expansion planning has become a task of the central government. To help the government in this area, this paper proposes a new approach called the integrated resource strategic planning (IRSP). When combined with a smart grid, this approach can replace the IRP for the government's power sector expansion. This paper introduces the necessity and possibility of using this new approach, presents a framework on how to use the approach, and justifies the effectiveness of this approach against the traditional power planning approach, with a case study in China. This paper concludes that if China follows the IRSP approach, it may be able to avoid or postpone up to 69 GW of power generation in the period 2009-2015. These measures could help mitigate 201.8 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), 0.816 million tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), and 0.946 million tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx). Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.