Patent ID: 8103563

Claim:
A system to control delivery of utility power associated with a utility meter comprising: a control unit coupled to the utility meter to monitor energy delivered to a customer premises and to control said utility power to said customer premises; logic configured to generate customer utility usage data corresponding to the energy delivered to the customer premises; and a display unit communicatively coupled to the control unit to display the customer utility usage data, said display unit further including a customer input device to receive input from a customer at said customer premises; said display unit configured for location limited to said customer premises; said control unit further comprising: a control processor, said control processor configured to receive meter readings from said utility meter relating to said energy delivered to said customer premises; a relay controlled by said control processor, said relay to switch said utility power on or off to said customer premises; and a network interface between said control processor and a control server, said control server to be operated by a supplier of said utility power; wherein said control processor is configured to receive an energy consumption threshold level from said control server over said network interface, said energy consumption threshold level being based on customer prepayment or credit available in an account with said supplier of said utility power, said control processor is configured to compare said meter readings from said power meter with said energy consumption threshold and said control processor is configured to control said relay to turn off power to said customer premises based at least in part upon said meter readings reaching said energy consumption threshold; wherein said control processor is configured to receive for restored account information from said control server using said network interface when said account is restored to a positive account balance, and said control processor is configured to display said restored account information using said display unit, said control processor is configured to subsequently receive a confirmation to restore power from said customer via said customer input device at said customer premises, and said control processor is configured to control said relay to restore power to said customer premises in response to receiving said confirmation to restore power.