Why ECC? 
SMART GRID
Old vs. New
A range of global forces are coming together that are leading the mass deployment of a new "smart" infrastructure in the utility industry called the Smart Grid. The grid has always been made up of power generation, transmission and distribution. The Smart Grid has the same make-up, with one distinct advantage, two way communication and control, which allows all segments of the grid to communicated with one another.
The old grid is a network of lines and electromechanical devices that is heavily reliant on human intervention. The Smart Grid, empowered by communication, can collect, share and act on information to manage the flow of electricity and facilitate remote asset management by monitoring voltage event logs, phase information, outage logs and tamper information for improved operations.
A Timely Innovation
The transformers in a today's electrical substation were designed to last 40 years. The average age of the 70,000 transformers across North America is currently 42 years. Replacement of these devices cannot be ignored. This is just one of many examples of an aging electrical infrastructure.
Concurrently, greater emphasis is being placed on energy conservation that ever before. Studies by the utility industry show that instead of that building new generating plants, the most cost effective way to make more power available is through conservation.
When today's aging electrical grid is replaced and augmented by the Smart Grid and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (millions of smart meters connected to homes, and businesses) electricity will be better controlled and consumers will be able to lower their energy costs while participating in energy conservation.
Communications Creates Control and Conservation.
The inherent communications abilities of smart meters connected to the Smart Grid provide consumers with information on their energy usage. This innovation has allowed utilities to create time-of-use pricing. A concept by which they offer discount pricing during off-peak periods and charge premium prices during periods of high demand. Early pilot studies indicate that consumers armed with consumption data and variable pricing have chosen to become 25% more effecient.
Two-way communications and control can also facilitate innovative demand response and load management strategies such as modulating loads from power hungry air conditioning compressor circuits during a heat wave. This can be quite effective in removing power demand from the network with imperceptible impact on consumer comfort.
With this advanced communications it is also possible to meter energy that consumers add to the grid from alternative energy sources such a solar, while constantly monitoring their interconnections to the Smart Grid.