Investing in Energy Efficiency to Optimize the Electric System, Spur Markets and Achieve Consumer and Environmental Benefits

Optimizing the electric system through improving capital utilization and minimizing infrastructure costs is one of the hallmarks of efforts to modernize the electric grid. These endeavors are focused on the distribution system,the remaining purview of the regulated utility monopoly, but should also be applied to generation and transmission. In fact, it is these two sectors where the most progress has been made in using Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), energy efficiency in particular, to substitute for the construction of more expensive power plants and transmission lines.