More detailed and more frequent data coming from smart grids are changing what demand management can do for both utilities and their commercial customers.

It used to mean calling up large customers when demand peaked and asking them to cut back, sometimes while sharing in the savings of avoided generation. Now, two-way data exchanges make a new level of energy management possible.

"Demand response is creating business intelligence" in which companies can understand their exposure to time of use as well as overall volume of use when it comes to electricity, Constellation Energy Senior Vice President for Demand Response Gary Fromer told AOL Energy recently.

"Demand response can grow from an occasional emergency process to one designed to fit a customer's individual needs," the website's Peter Gardett wrote.