The Control Products business of Honeywell (Minneapolis) recently announced a joint marketing and distribution alliance with Cannon Technologies (Minneapolis), a leader in electric utility automation and peak load management. The alliance combines Honeywell's expertise in home and building control with Cannon's proven system of software, hardware and communications to deliver complete solutions for energy and comfort control to electric utilities for peak load reduction.

In periods of high power demand, price responsive load systems allow utilities to send price signals and/or curtailment directives to customer homes and business. Honeywell and Cannon are offering a suite of solutions that include everything from wireless controllable thermostats to software that communicates power prices to businesses over the web. Industry experts note that demand response systems could have saved billions in power costs during past periods of high demand while at the same time eliminating the environmental impact of short-term generation.