The Utility of the Future: Choice, Innovation, Opportunity, and Challenge

To facilitate the transformation to a clean energy future, the local power grid must become a plug-and-play platform that integrates an ever-growing set of DER technologies.

To achieve that, utilities will need to expand their capabilities as Distribution System Operators (DSOs) that plan and manage a modernized plug-and-play grid. By connecting to this platform, DER owners access a grid that supports their needs as customers and markets that increase the value of their investment.

These massive changes to the grid and markets will take time — possibly more than a decade — to accomplish. But, if utilities, regulators, and distributed energy providers come together now with a sense of urgency, the foundation developing now will be established by the turn of the decade.

It is June 21, 2030, the longest day of the year, and it is going to be a scorcher. Fifteen years ago, Southern California Edison might have had to turn to "peaker" power plants that run on fossil fuels to keep customers cool on long, hot days.

Today, however, the power grid is running safely, reliably, and efficiently, bolstered by customers' widespread adoption of clean energy technologies.