When you look at an electrical system, historically the generators simply followed the demand: demand increase, generation increase, and so on. The first thing that happened is that people started to build transmission lines. S&C contributed to that a century ago. The reason is that, the broader the scale of that system, the easier it is to smooth out demand and generation.
Over the last 20 to 30 years we started to control the demand. For example, in some provinces now, like New Brunswick, you can control the water heaters. They turn them off for a few minutes during peak times so that they can better balance the grid. Now after generation, after transmission, after load, there's a fourth element that is now coming into play to balance the grid, and that is storage. In fact, storage becomes an alternative to long-haul transmission lines, simply because it allows energy from local generation to be stored locally to be used later.
Another aspect as well is that, when we look at building transmission lines, we're talking 15 or 20 years and a lot of discussions at the local level. If you build a large utility-scale storage system, well frankly, it looks like a warehouse. In my exhibit I have a picture of the one in the U.K., and it's a warehouse. There are various shapes, but they have them distributed in industrial parks, and smaller ones behind the meters in houses, and anywhere in between.
Storage, which is the fourth way to balance the grid after the generation, transmission, and load demand, is probably more suitable for the future. In order to implement that, we need to improve the local distribution system so that it supports two-way power flows, and it is more reliable.