  A control scheme to reduce the size of avalanches of the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld
model on complex networks is proposed. Three network types are considered:
those proposed by Erd\H{o}s-Renyi, Goh-Kahng-Kim, and a real network
representing the main connections of the electrical power grid of the western
United States. The control scheme is based on the idea of triggering avalanches
in the highest degree nodes that are near to become critical. We show that this
strategy works in the sense that the dissipation of mass occurs most locally
avoiding larger avalanches. We also compare this strategy with a random
strategy where the nodes are chosen randomly. Although the random control has
some ability to reduce the probability of large avalanches, its performance is
much worse than the one based on the choice of the highest degree nodes.
Finally, we argue that the ability of the proposed control scheme is related to
its ability to reduce the concentration of mass on the network.
