Utilities

Improving grid reliability and resilience in the face of increasing complexity

Ensuring power availability, always and no matter what

For more than a century, the electric grid has delivered reliable and relatively affordable electricity. Yet, fundamental shifts in energy dynamics require new solutions to continue to support grid resilience into the future.

Unprecedented demand growth, aging infrastructure, cybersecurity risks and increasingly frequent natural disasters are driving the urgent need for new resilience strategies. The fundamental architecture of the grid is also evolving, as centralized energy production has increasingly become distributed and traditional energy consumers increasingly add onsite distributed energy resources (DERs). The good news is that utilities and industry partners are experts at building and maintaining infrastructure. Together, we’re delivering the expertise and innovations to strengthen the critical infrastructure our communities and industries rely upon.

of the U.S. electric grid is more than 25 years old

$182.7

billion costs related to 27 weather and climate disaster events in 2024

of outages due to weather-related events

Transforming, protecting and strengthening the electric grid

Updating and optimizing the aging electric grid
Isolating outages, reducing the number of customers impacted
Accelerating new technologies that advance the industry
Hardening against extreme weather, storms and wildfires
Undergrounding distribution lines to drive system resilience
Addressing cybersecurity through a defense-in-depth strategy

Utilities have invested in grid infrastructure for decades, even when there was slow demand growth. Now, there’s an opportunity to transform the grid to power ever-increasing reliance on electricity. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to modernize the grid. Yet, grid transformation must be seamless, clean, equitable and timely to serve energy consumers everywhere. Utilities are working alongside trusted manufacturers and suppliers to make it happen – and both have a long history of success.

Advancing grid resilience and reliability

Utilities the world over are taking a multipronged approach to ensure a reliable, resilient supply of power is always on.

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Woman working at desktop computer at night with digital display

Isolating and reducing outage impact

As extreme risks to the grid increase, strengthening infrastructure and improving outage management has never been more important. Utilities’ efforts are helping fortify the grid against the impact of extreme weather and minimize the number of affected customers.

Advancing the industry with new technologies

Amid changing energy dynamics, novel solutions are needed to ensure the grid will continue to deliver affordable, reliable and safe power in the years to come. Working together with partners across industries, research and development efforts are delivering solutions to transform the grid for a new energy landscape.

Updating and optimizing aging grid infrastructure

Existing infrastructure is not getting any younger and was designed for one-way power flow. Today, the need to monitor, manage and secure the grid is paramount to support two-way power flow and better utilize the grid. Further, new approaches to monitor and optimize grid assets enable utilities to extend the useful life of existing equipment, reduce risks and advance grid resilience.

Eaton is an intelligent power management company dedicated to improving the quality of life and protecting the environment for people everywhere. We are guided by our commitment to do business right, to operate sustainably and to help our customers manage power ─ today and well into the future. By capitalizing on the global growth trends of electrification and digitalization, we’re accelerating the planet’s transition to renewable energy and helping to solve the world’s most urgent power management challenges.