S&C Electric Company, a provider of power grid solutions, announced the opening of its Smart Grid Solutions Demonstration Center at the company's headquarters in Chicago.

This is an important milestone for smart grid industry as the demonstration center will allow electric utilities and other visitors to see, in real time, how smart grid technologies respond to grid issues and optimize power delivery systems.

The opening of the center also coincides with S&C Electric Company’s centennial anniversary celebration.

“The Liquid Power Fuse was the first of many S&C innovations that improved the reliability and efficiency of power grids over the last century,” said John Estey, president and CEO of S&C, in a statement. “As S&C celebrates its first 100 years, we are proud of where we've been, but more importantly, we are proud of where we are headed.”

As part of its long-term vision, S&C will continue to focus on developing and evolving grid solutions that solve power delivery problems. Its innovation efforts are aimed at assisting electric grids worldwide to provide the reliability and power quality required to support economic growth and improved quality of life.

The newly built demonstration center includes interactive exhibits that display S&C's solutions such as self-healing technology, energy storage integration solutions and communications systems. The interactive exhibits showcase the benefits of these technologies and demonstrate how S&C's solutions can improve the efficiency and operating performance of the electrical grid, a crucial goal for utilities, company officials said.

Recently, S&C Electric Company announced the launch of the new IntelliCom family of wireless networking communications products thereby broadening its communication solutions portfolio for the smart grid. Leveraging distributed intelligence, these devices aid utilities to better manage and utilize the data required to support applications ranging from AMI backhaul to time-critical distribution automation.