Distributed Generation: Cleaner, Cheaper, Stronger

Electricity is illuminating, but its generation, transmission, and distribution have long been opaque. Cleaner, Cheaper, Stronger: Industrial Efficiency in the Changing Utility Landscape reports on how the once static utility industry is becoming a dynamic and transformative opportunity for the nation’s economic, environmental, and energy future.

Energy storage technologies encourage adoption of renewable energy by addressing generation variation resulting from weather conditions. They also aid local utilities by providing an array of grid-balancing services, such as peak shifting—shifting grid usage by consumers from periods of high demand to less intensive times—and backup power supplies. These characteristics support a cleaner and more reliable electric system and present an important market opportunity for the clean energy economy.

Energy smart technologies are products and services that increase the connection and dialogue between electricity producers and end users. They are the heart of a smart grid—a combination of parts plus a process for using information and communication technologies to integrate the components of each electric system—and are contributing to one of the first major foundational changes to the U.S. power system since its inception a century ago. The growth of this market presents a critical opportunity for generators and end users across a vast array of industries to develop new products and improve efficiency and resiliency in the evolving grid.

Microgrids are small groupings of interconnected power generation and control technologies that can operate within or independent of a central grid, mitigating disturbances and increasing system reliability. By enabling the integration of distributed resources such as wind and solar, these systems can be more flexible than traditional grids. This market presents a new and important opportunity for end users, generators, and planners to provide increased efficiency and resiliency in the evolving grid.