The grid has changed, our energy statistics haven’t

The grid has changed, our energy statistics haven’t

Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are transforming how electricity is generated, delivered and managed across the United States. Rooftop solar, community solar, battery storage, electric vehicles, demand response, and virtual power plants (VPPs) have become an integral part of the country’s power infrastructure. Together, these resources are improving grid flexibility, supporting reliability, and accelerating the transition to a cleaner energy future.

But the way the U.S. measures DERs has not evolved at the same pace.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has long provided the data used by policymakers, utilities, investors, researchers, and developers. Its reporting has been essential for understanding the nation's electricity system. But much of today's reporting framework was developed when distributed energy was primarily synonymous with small-scale generation.

Today's DER ecosystem is fundamentally different and far more dynamic, and a new generation of assets don’t fit within the EIA definition of DERs.

EIA still has a 1MW threshold for DERs, which should be revised upward. But increasingly the value of distributed resources is not defined solely by how much electricity they provide. Batteries shift energy across time. Smart devices reduce or increase demand in response to grid conditions. Electric vehicles can become flexible grid assets. Virtual power plants aggregate thousands of distributed resources into dispatchable capacity capable of supporting both wholesale markets and local reliability.

These capabilities are only partially reflected in today's national statistics.

As a result, stakeholders lack a comprehensive view of how distributed resources contribute to the nation's electricity mix and overall system performance. Installed capacity remains an important metric, but it does not capture operational flexibility, dispatchability, or the growing role of aggregated DERs.

Modernizing the EIA's reporting framework would help address this gap. Four practical steps could significantly improve national visibility into distributed energy:

  • Expand the working definition of DER to include storage, flexible demand, electric vehicles, and other controllable distributed resources alongside distributed generation.
  • Complement installed capacity reporting with operational metrics that reflect how DERs are used, including charging, discharging, demand shifting, and grid exports.
  • Recognize aggregated resources such as virtual power plants as distinct contributors to the electricity system.
  • Improve reporting of bidirectional energy flows between customers and the grid to better reflect the realities of a decentralized electricity network.

These changes would not alter the EIA's role as an independent statistical agency. Rather, they would ensure that its reporting continues to provide an accurate picture of an electricity system that is becoming increasingly distributed, digital, and interactive.

Good decisions depend on good data. As DERs become a larger contributor to reliability, resilience, and abundance, the nation's energy statistics should evolve to reflect not just where electricity is generated, but how distributed resources collectively shape the modern grid.