In 1974, Mr. Paraskevakos was awarded a U.S. patent for this technology. In 1977, he launched Metretek, Inc.[4], which developed and produced the first fully automated, commercially available remote meter reading and load management system. Since this system was developed pre-Internet, Metretek utilized the IBM series 1 mini-computer. For this approach, Mr. Paraskevakos and Metretek were awarded multiple patents.