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The blackout experiences have demonstrated the vulnerability of the interconnected electric power system to grid failure caused by natural disasters and unexpected phenomena. Changes in customer needs, additional stress due to liberalized electricity markets, and a high degree of dependency of today's society on sophisticated technological services also intensify the burden on traditional electric systems and demand for a more reliable and resilient power delivery infrastructure. This paper discusses the design of a restructured electric distribution network that employs a large number of small distributed energy resources (DER) units, which can improve the level of system reliability and provide service differentiations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]