Non-wires solutions (NWS) represent a compelling update to traditional utility investment practices, helping keep customer electricity bills stable while enabling a lower-carbon electricity grid.

For the past decade, regulated utilities have spent an average of $55 billion annually upgrading their distribution, transmission, and generation infrastructure to meet customer needs. The largest share of this investment has been in distribution infrastructure to maintain and modernize the last-mile networks that deliver energy to homes and businesses.

Electric utilities increasingly can reduce their system infrastructure investments and save customers money by employing non-wires solutions (NWS) —portfolios of distributed energy resources (DERs) like solar photovoltaics, energy storage, energy efficiency, and demand response—to cost-effectively meet growing grid needs, according to The Non-Wires Solutions Implementation Playbook: A Practical Guide for Regulators, Utilities, and Developers report. 

https://www.rmi.org/insight/non-wires-solutions-playbook

https://www.rmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/rmi-non-wires-solutions-playbook-report-2018.pdf