Control4 (www.control4.com) has been selected as the home area network provider for Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative (Bastrop, Texas, U.S.). Bluebonnet plans to begin integrating smart grid technology in its members' homes and businesses by April 2010.

The Control4 EMS-100 system will work in concert with Silver Spring smart meters and eMeter software, feeding vital information back to the utility and providing customers with up-to-the-minute information on outages, conservation events and price spikes. The Control4 system delivers energy-usage data from various loads in the home, allowing homeowners to manually turn off devices or program the system to do so during peak times and demand response.

The system is composed of the EC100 Energy Controller, an intuitive in-home touch-screen device that supplies consumers with updates on energy usage and costs, tips for saving money on energy bills, power alerts from the utility, and information on various loads and activity within the home. The system also includes a programmable thermostat that communicates with the Energy Controller.