Interesting article on CNET’s News.com about two companies — Hanover, N.J.-based Comverge and Boston-based EnerNoc — that help hydro utilities better manage power demand during peak periods to avoid the risk of blackouts. EnerNoc calls this “Demand Response.”

As more residences and businesses get equipped with two-way smart meters, driven by mandates in jurisdictions such as Ontario, it becomes possible for utilities to play a greater role in actively managing who’s using electricity, how much, and when.

It’s all about the intelligent or “smart” grid, and moving in this direction makes more efficient use of existing power plants while eliminating the need to build more power capacity to meet growing peak demand.

Hydro utilities across North America — closer to home, this would include Hydro One and Toronto Hydro — are getting ready to install smart meters into homes and businesses. They’re also exploring the use of mobile data communications networks and fixed-wireless technology to communicate with these smart meters, allowing for a two-way interaction and the ability to control power use by individual users during peak times.

The idea is to connect directly with individual appliances in the home — air conditioners, heaters, swimming pool pumps and heaters — or to a smart thermostat that controls heating and cooling in a building. When power consumption on the grid is near peak, the utilities can use software to go into homes and buildings and turn down cooling, heating or completely turn off non-essential appliances until a peak crisis is over. This is all done with the permission of the home owner or business, who in return would get some kind of reward, such as a break on their bill.

A Toronto-based company, called Encelium Technologies Inc., can do something similar but with a particular focus on lighting fixtures in commercial buildings. Its technology, which can adjust the level of IP address-assigned lighting fixtures, could allow a utility to lower the lighting in a building or turn off non-essential lights to avoid blackout conditions. Again, this would be with the permission of the building owner or businesses within a building.

Last July, Ontario’s Hydro One signed a deal with Concord, Ont.-based OZZ Energy Solutions Inc. — which is a distributor of the Comverge software — that established a 12-month, 450-home trial of its demand-response software.

“It presents a tremendous opportunity since peak consumption usually occurs in the middle of the day when so many residents aren’t home or have little need for these appliances,” the companies said in announcing the trial. “The controls technology is able to interrupt the operation of these appliances in a way that has virtually no impact on home comfort.”

Come this July the trial will be over. It will be interesting to see how well it worked, because this is clearly the direction we are heading — the direction we’ll need to head — to solve our energy demand issues. Moving to renewable systems such as wind, solar, biogas and even more hydro may be part of the answer, but the smarter use of the power facilities we already have will play a crucial role in the coming years.

As an aside, an interesting spinoff of these initiatives is the potential of ubiquitous community broadband access. Since fixed-wireless networks are being considered as a way to allow smart meters to communicate with area utilities, it’s a no brainer if a utility wanted to get into the business of selling wireless broadband Internet access. Many are already considering it, including Hamilton and Sault St. Marie in Ontario.