ROSEMEAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Southern California Edison issued a white paper today regarding its vision to accelerate an emerging clean, reliable energy future that relies on a high penetration of distributed energy resources.
The white paper, “The Emerging Clean Energy Economy: Customer-Driven. Modernized. Reliable.,” provides an overview of the company’s plan to modernize the power grid to enhance safety and reliability, meet the changing needs of customers, reduce carbon emissions, support clean-energy growth and deploy emerging technologies that can create new businesses and jobs.
Customers are adopting clean-energy technologies — rooftop solar, onsite energy storage, electric vehicles and energy management systems — at an accelerated pace, creating the opportunity for more choice and control over their use and supply of energy.
“By working together with customers, regulators and technology providers, companies like SCE are positioned to drive this energy evolution to create a more reliable, safe and clean energy future that will help California achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals,” said SCE President Ron Nichols.
SCE laid out a vision in the paper in which the power grid is a “plug-and-play” platform that places the customer at the center, eases distributed energy resource integration and facilitates customer choice. The paper examines the critical importance of modernizing the grid to enable high distributed energy resources penetration and reduce carbon emissions.
SCE is modernizing and reinforcing the power grid to improve safety and reliability while supporting the integration and use of distributed energy resources. Grid operators need information on the operations of the distributed energy resources, the ability to control the distribution grid and systems to create market platforms to transact with distributed energy resources providers. This will require greater automation and the installation of advanced sensors and communication devices. This smarter energy infrastructure will also enhance safety, minimize disruptions, and increase reliability.
The white paper describes how electric power companies are uniquely positioned to function as distribution system operators. Distribution system operators will coordinate between control rooms and field crews in real time to manage grid operations and new markets simultaneously. Distribution system operators also will identify specific needs of the grid; contract for portfolios of distributed energy resources that result in the greatest net benefit for customers; and create competitive markets that compensate distributed energy resources for the services they provide.
Electric power companies acting as distribution system operators will plan and manage the modernized grid, ensuring that distributed energy resources are integrated to optimize the grid for all customers.
“The Emerging Clean Energy Economy: Customer-Driven. Modernized. Reliable.” is available at www.edison.com/TransformingtheGrid.
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 15 million via 5 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.
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