Patent ID: 7869904

Claim:
A method for managing a utility load from a master utility station by controlling electrical consumption of electrically powered devices, the method comprising the steps of: selecting at least one target for load control and assigning the at least one target at least one target address; using a control system of a utility provider to form a single variable length load control message according to a communication protocol, wherein the load control message includes the at least one target address and a plurality of unique concatenated command messages as part of the single variable length load control message, each of the plurality of unique concatenated command messages being selected from the set consisting of a command message having a predetermined message type and a fixed length message defined for the predetermined message type and a command message having a predetermined message type and a variable length message corresponding to values in a command message control flag field defined for the predetermined message type; and causing the single variable length load control message to be transmitted via a communication network to the at least one target for execution of the variable length load control message, and wherein the at least one target comprises an individual end user device and the at least one target address comprises a device-level address; and receiving a reply message formed according to the communication protocol via a communication network at the master utility station from the at least one target after the load control message is transmitted.