In one version of the future utility-customer relationship that such a grid would make possible, customers might have a fixed monthly bill and long-term contract not unlike a cell phone service and the utility would provide, in addition to electricity, a suite of distributed resources, Julia Hamm, president of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) said at a recent conference.In that future, more energy-smart consumers could choose to shop for private sector vendors to provide the solar, storage, and smart technologies — and they would be able to, Hamm said, because any vision of the electricity sector’s future should include choice.“We want this future,” Southern California Edison (SCE) President Ron Nichols said of Hamm’s description at the Solar Power International Conference. “We need to have a grid that can make that work.”

Source: How Southern California Edison’s new rate case would transform the grid | Utility Dive