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January/February 2013

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

On the grid, electric utilities are replacing analogue electro-mechanical technologies with an advanced digital information and telecommunications network. In so doing, they are creating an electric superhighway for the 21st century—one that’s more reliable, secure, and capable of meeting the rapidly changing energy needs of its customers.

To a great extent, the efforts to transform the country’s electric distribution system have sparked the rise of distributed energy resources (DER), which can include rooftop solar panels, microturbines providing auxiliary power, energy storage systems, and even microgrids. As the industry moves away from a system in which electricity flows one way—from the utility to the customer—to a grid that can handle both power and information flowing back and forth from customer to the utility, as well as variable flows, it also is creating more options for customers to generate their own electricity.

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  © 2013 Edison Electric Institute. All rights reserved.