18 A Strategy for Modernizing America's Electricity Infrastructure

Electricity infrastructure is composed of electric generation, transmission, distribution, and retail supply for use in consumer applications. Each of these major components is interconnected with, and interactive with, the others. Transmission and distribution are functionally distinct networks that are intimately joined and operated synchronously through the operation of thousands of substations. These networks deliver power hundreds, and even thousands, of miles away from generators to consumers within geographically defined service territories. In American regions rich with Earth's wind and solar energy resources, increasing amounts of consumer electricity consumption is being generated on consumers' premises as well as on huge wind and solar farms far away. A strategy for modernizing America's electric infrastructure, therefore, must be comprehensive. It should cover the entire electricity system, from power generation through consumption behind the customer meter.