In the electric industry, the day of large central station power plants has already given way to modular, combined cycle gas powered plants. We envisioned a day when the next step, distributed (or personal) generation, would play a major role. We wanted to lead that transformation.

As you can imagine from our business mix, DTE Energy believes that the traditional electric and gas system will be around for a long time to come. But we also believe that one of the first steps towards a total transformation of energy markets will be a vibrant market for personalized power that uses distributed generation technology.

Utilities will be some of the first real-world, large-scale users of distributed generation. As the cost of expanding and reinforcing existing T&D systems increases, distributed generation will increasingly be a more cost-effective alternative. Put the generation where the load is and avoid the need to upgrade T&D.

These machines have the potential not only to produce highly reliable power at competitive prices, these technologies produce step jumps in energy efficiencies. Because distributed generation is installed at the user site, much of the energy lost up the stack or cooling tower of a traditional plant can be captured in the form of useful heat.

From the outset, distributed generation has the potential to deliver significant environmental benefits.

Our vision is to become the pre-eminent supplier of integrated distributed generation solutions.