## 1 Introduction
### Understanding the Electric Utilities' Perspective in Today's Distribution Market
While energy efficiency and other means of safeguarding the energy supply, aside from the traditional means of electricity distribution infrastructure modernization used to be the norm in the industry, so long as the power supply was not threatened, that is no longer the case. Chile has had its tough share of disruption of basic public services like electricity and water supply just like other countries in America [17]. Another example is Puerto Rico, which was hit hard very recently and is still recoveringfrom the huge damages. Also, New Orleans continues to suffer a lot of problems after hurricane Katrina [19]. When facing these described challenges, microgrids are being signalled as a possible solution. Microgrids usually include local generation, such as solar or wind or both, and at certain times they also resort to other means of power generation which are more conventional in nature--like electric power generators or micro-turbines, which are able to provide rapid power dispatching (especially in those cases when the microgrid works off-grid, on what is called island mode) and an energy storage method (such as batteries), if necessary. Some microgrids choose to operate without energy storage altogether and simply opt for taking the electric supply that is needed from the grid whenever it is needed, in times when the microgrid power supply is not enough to satisfy the full loads demand. The decision of whether to use or not to use batteries to store energy depends on the electricity consumption profiles and specific necessities of the community of users (e.g., electricity-dependent people who have medical equipment at home for specific treatments or health sustenance like kidney dialysis, which must always be connected to electric power supply), and on the particular plant capacity options versus peak load patterns, among other things. The impact of this local generation and its advantages has been broadly studied. For example, reference [23] present a real case showing the impact of solar generation over the consumption of a group of consumers of residential buildings in Santiago, Chile. These types of energy consumer groupings in residential buildings--a strategy being considered by utilities like ENEL Distribution in Chile--allow for identification of diverse electricity consumption profiles at different hourly schedules and displaying various energy versus power consumption patterns, all of which give the electric utility the possibility of managing more appropriately and efficiently, the energy of the microgrid and its relationship with the consumers. As a matter of fact, this particular strategy allows the electric utility to offer electric supply service customization, something that was non-existent before the advent of the smart grid and the microgrid. However, there is a drawback amongst all the benefits. There is an increase in the complexity when managing the system as a whole, particularly when the number of consumers is large and the peak power consumption periods are prolonged or extensive. Hence, it is necessary to apply methods to simplify this task and make it more manageable, as it will be described in this paper.