Patent ID: 7376631

Claim:
A method for providing power consumption measurement and identity information from power consumption meters to a power supplier in order to permit the power supplier to post power consumption measurements to owner accounts, the method comprising the steps of: determining that a first power consumption meter at a public recharging location for a vehicle has a parent relationship to a second power consumption meter for the vehicle, so that the second meter is a submeter to the first meter, such that according to the parent relationship the second meter is supplying at least part of an energy load supplied by the first meter, wherein determining the parent relationship includes a relationship determining communication between the first and second meters without involving the power supplier in that relationship determining communication, and wherein the relationship determining communication includes: i) sending an identification by the first meter periodically for receipt by any submeter, or ii) sending a request by the second meter to the first meter for identification of the first meter, the request by the second meter being initiated by the second meter in response to the second meter being supplied energy by the first meter; and the second meter receiving from the first meter an identifier for the first meter; and wherein the method further includes: measuring, by the first meter, energy delivered by the first meter; measuring, by the second meter, energy delivered by the second meter; reporting, by at least one of the first and second meters to the power supplier, the respective amounts of energy measured by the meters; reporting, by at least one of the first and second power consumption meters to the power supplier, respective meter identifiers, wherein the power supplier has accounts and each owner identifier identifies a holder of one of the accounts; and reporting the parent relationship to the power supplier, wherein the reporting of the parent relationship includes the second meter reporting the first meter's identifier to the power supplier as a parent meter identifier, so that the power supplier is able to post the reported respective amounts of energy to corresponding owner accounts in response to the information received from the meters, including selectively posting a credit to an account for power delivered by the first meter to the second meter.