While SONET/SDH networks have served utilities well over the past 25 years as core communications networks, the reality is that the risk of outages increases each year as these products are deployed beyond their design life spans. Utilities are increasingly looking at packet-optical technology to modernize their networks to handle emerging bandwidth-intensive applications, and also meet their paramount need for TDM-level performance for mission-critical traffic. SEL and Ciena have validated the ultra-low-latency packet WAN solution that meets and beats the industry standard for latency and failover performance required by utilities.