Deregulation and unbundling have caused many U.S. energy utilities to break apart the traditional vertically integrated monopoly and place competitive businesses such as electric generation, energy trading, and retail marketing into separate subsidiary companies or business units from the remaining regulated businesses of transmission and distribution.  Some utilities are even voluntarily divesting themselves of most or all of their generation and gas supply assets, in order to focus on the core monopoly functions of energy delivery.  But is the Utility Distribution Company that is being created really just the unbundled "pipes and wires" piece of the former integrated monopoly, or are there other value-added products and services that go along with energy delivery?  This talk will take the somewhat unpopular position that the post-unbundling distribution business can continue to play an important role in delivering a wide array of products and services, beyond the "plain vanilla" monopoly wires and pipes.