This sponsored article is brought to you by Black & Veatch.
The biggest challenge facing utilities today is not what it seems. It’s not the demand, or the growth of the load is fast. It’s not too bad weather, as “big events” are becoming the norm. It is not cybersecurity, as the connection extends across the grid.
Nick Lehnert, Associate Vice President, Distribution Grid Leader, Black & Veatch.
Black & Veatch
The real challenge is this: Distribution systems are designed for a different reality.
Long gone are the days of predictable demand, one-way energy flow and one-way disruption. At Black & Veatch, we see that leading utilities no longer argue that they can be modernized. They decide how quickly they can do it, and how to do it at scale.
In all modern grid systems around the world, three truths always emerge. They explain what it takes to prepare a distribution plan for the following:
1. Extinction reaction is not a resilience strategy
Durability is redefined in real time. A strategy focused on consolidating staff and restoring service as quickly as possible is effective, and increasingly inadequate.
Resilience should change the river into the construction of an integrated system. That starts with resilience. Strong poles, underground development and structure all play a role, especially in high-risk corridors. We are also seeing tangible benefits from how the network is configured and how quickly it can respond without waiting for manual intervention.
This is where automated distribution systems can change results. Properly placed reclosers, automatic switches and fault indicators help contain disturbances before they spread. When combined with feed reconfiguration and updated security strategies, distribution automation investments allow utilities to set aggressive acquisition targets and achieve measurable reductions in outage time and customer impact.
2. Future readiness depends on DERs at scale
The prediction is less and less reliable. Only 19 percent of utilities report strong confidence in their ability to forecast future load growth, according to the Black & Veatch 2025 Electric Report. Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as solar, storage, EVs and behind-the-meter generation are exciting solutions; but they fundamentally change the way the system works. Power is no longer just transferred. It is injected, stored and redirected in ways the system was never designed to handle.
At scale, these challenges emerge quickly – especially for feeders where distributed production approaches or exceeds holding capacity. Coordinating protection becomes more difficult when the fault occurs in multiple locations. The voltage gets worse as the generation fluctuates throughout the day. And planning models must now account for highly variable, location-specific behavior.
Distribution modernization fundamentally changes the way a system is designed and operated to be able to absorb disruptions, manage two-way flows and respond in real time.
Adapting to the two-way energy flow requires more than incremental updates. The best utilities respond by building flexibility into the program, moving beyond static assumptions to dynamic holding capacity and coordination studies, planning that includes DER, EV adoption and local load growth, and the infrastructure associated with the communication and control needed to manage it.
3. The edge must be smart, visible and secure
As system pressure and complexity increase, utilities need greater visibility and control over the network. Historically, utilities have relied on customer calls, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) at the substation level and field personnel to understand what was happening in the system. That model doesn’t hold. You can’t effectively manage a system you can’t see. Also, the most critical events are increasingly occurring beyond the substation – at the feeds, laterals, and edges where DER and customer behavior interact with the grid.
Grid technology has become essential. Sensors, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and automatic switching provide the raw data and control needed from operational to continuous operation. In more advanced applications, utilities create centralized control points that allow operators to see and manage the distribution system in near real-time. That ability is enabled by:
- Communication networks have evolved to form the backbone of real-time grid visibility
- Distribution Management System (DMS) and Outage Management System (OMS) to enable faster, more coordinated system response
- Analytics, AI and machine learning to improve situational awareness, anticipate system conditions, and support operational decision making
The same connectivity that enables this real-time visibility and control also introduces new risks, blurring the line between physical and cyber risk, but many services manage separately. Only 22 percent have affiliates present, even as threats continue to rise, including a 50 percent increase in substation attacks and increased exposure to malware and ransomware, according to the Black & Veatch 2025 Electric Report. Cybersecurity and robust network design should be embedded in the architecture from the start—not layered on after the fact.
See what a brilliant idea looks like
Distribution modernization fundamentally changes the way a system is designed and operated to be able to absorb disruptions, manage two-way flows and respond in real time.
To learn about a successful plan, check out Georgia Power’s latest grid plan. Black & Veatch has partnered with the utility in major infrastructure development. The results? Outages have decreased by 76 percent, restoration times have improved by more than 80 percent and communities across Georgia are powered by a grid built to meet the future.
When the state faced the most destructive storm in the company’s history, Hurricane Helene, Georgia Power deployed a rapid response team that deployed a “smart grid” and restored power to more than 1 million customers within days.
A grid built to meet the future head-on—that’s the result of brilliant vision.
