x Preface A typical electric utility's knowledge of the state of its distribution network is minimal. In many places, customers call to report that the lights are out, and then someone has to be sent to the field to figure out what happened, when, and why. In short, the industry has yet to embrace the information age. The smart grid, a catch-all term, promises to change this. Taken as a whole, it has the potential to usher the electricity sector into the information age. As the chapters of this book explain, the smart grid, along with smart meters, smart devices, and smart prices, can catapult the electric power industry into a new era, allowing the service providers to deliver new and improved services at lower costs and with higher levels of reliability. These benefits can be had while reducing the sector's considerable emissions of greenhouse gases by increasing the penetration of renewable energy resources and distributed and on-site generation. The list of what can be done is endless, limited only by our imagination. While the smart grid's great potentials are exciting, its challenges are equally daunting. Capturing its many purported benefits will not be easy or necessarily cheap. But as other industries have made the transition to the infor- mation age, the electric power sector too must embrace the concept and bring its full potential benefits to customers and society at large. This book, with contributions from a number of experts, practitioners, and