Patent ID: 7348769

Claim:
A method of managing the load on a power supply in an electricity meter having a power supply operable to convert service line power to regulated dc power using circuitry including a storage capacitor having an unregulated voltage across its terminals, metering circuits coupled to the power supply output and utilizing a controller to acquire data and memory to store data, and a plurality of peripheral devices each configured to be selectively coupled to the power supply output when mounted within the meter, the method comprising the steps of: sensing the presence of the unregulated voltage; selecting one of the plurality of peripheral devices and mounting the selected peripheral device in the meter; comparing using the controller the sensed unregulated voltage to a threshold value; deciding using the controller whether to couple the selected peripheral device to, or decouple the selected peripheral device from, the power supply based on the outcome of the comparing step; coupling the selected peripheral device to, or decoupling the selected peripheral device from, the power supply based on the outcome of the deciding step; and repeating the comparing, deciding and coupling or decoupling steps.