Patent ID: 7545285

Claim:
A method of reducing commodity consumption at a customer location, comprising: providing at the customer location a master controller in communication with a utility meter at the customer location, the utility meter being part of a fixed radio automated meter reading network comprising a collector and a plurality of utility meters that bi-directionally communicate wirelessly with the collector, each of the utility meters having a wireless communication path to the collector that is either a direct communication path to the collector or an indirect communication path through one or more other utility meters that serve as repeaters, and the collector receiving commodity consumption information from the plurality of utility meters; providing at least one load control unit at the customer location; transmitting from the collector of the fixed radio automated meter reading network to the master controller, via the utility meter at the customer location, configuration data defining loads to be interrupted; and instructing, by the master controller, said load control unit to interrupt a load based on said configuration data.