Recent Industry Experiences in Grid Modernization – Building the Grid of the Future

The energy transition is driving an unprecedented transformation in all aspects of the electric power industry. Achieving the vision of a clean energy system requires modernizing and building the grid of the future to enable the integration of renewable generation, and distributed energy resources and electrification, while providing a reliable, resilient, safe, secure, accessible, efficient, and affordable service. This requires making cost-effective investments in foundational infrastructure, intelligent assets and systems, communications and information systems, and software solutions and applications, as well as developing innovative and agile processes. This is a major and complex endeavor that involves meeting the requirements and expectations of multiple stakeholders, including customers, generation developers, regulators, policy makers, shareholders, etc. Electric utilities are implementing multiple initiatives to modernize power delivery systems, including 1) weather-hardening the grid and replacing aging assets, 2) implementing intelligent solutions to improve the visibility, monitoring, protection, automation, and control capabilities of the grid (e.g., AMI, FLISR, ADMS, DERMS, etc.), 3) deploying Distributed Energy Resources (DER), such as energy storage and microgrids as Non-Wires Alternatives (NWA) in selected locations, 4) modernizing engineering, planning and operations processes (e.g., advanced modeling, simulation and analysis of distribution systems), and 5) addressing organizational aspects (e.g., creating new organizations responsible for grid transformation, resilience, DER and electrification integration, etc.). This panel session will discuss the initiatives currently being implemented by four electric utilities (Dominion Energy, Eversource, LUMA Energy, and Entergy) to modernize power delivery systems. Topics will include 1) foundational infrastructure solutions (e.g., weather hardening, strategic undergrounding) to improve distribution resilience and reliability and climate change readiness, 2) advanced technology solutions (e.g., substation and distribution automation, sensors, advanced protection technologies), 3) modern planning, modeling, and analysis approaches (e.g., Integrated Distribution Planning, load and DER forecasting, DER and electrification hosting capacity), 4) methodologies for investment justification (e.g., benefit-cost analyses, value of reliability and resilience, development of roadmaps, regulatory process, etc.), and 5) key trends to watch closely in this area.