The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the US electric utility industry. But as the year went on, one thing became increasingly clear—the broad trends that have emerged in the sector in recent years remain unchanged, and the forces propelling those trends are getting stronger.

Utility Dive surveyed hundreds of utility professionals from across the country to learn about the state of the electric energy industry. In this report, we reveal survey results, including:

• How COVID-19 impacted the utility industry and helped accelerate the clean energy transition
• The greatest challenges facing electric utilities, including aging assets, integrating renewables, cost of transition to ratepayers and changing customer expectations
• The best ways to handle increasing amounts of distributed energy resources on the power system, plus trends in regulatory and business models—including the top challenges utilities face with the current structure

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