Consumers could outspend utilities in the adoption of solar, storage, electric vehicles and other distributed energy resources (DERs), making it essential for utilities to track and integrate these DERs into their planning processes to benefit their customers and the grid. That is one of the key findings of a new case study from Black & Veatch and SEPA, which details the efforts of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) to create such an integrated DER planning process.