An electrical utility meter system measures residential energy consumption and automatically communicates this information to a host computer via the Internet. The host computer can then be accessed by the end utility customer or other authorized entities. This Internet or web based system offers two-way communication capability to support meter reconfiguration. This system is comprised of two major elements, a hardware unit and database software. The hardware unit includes a printed circuit card that is retrofitted into a form 2S single-phase residential meters. The unit measures residential energy consumption in predefined intervals, stores the measurements, and communicates at predefined times to a host database server. The unit can accommodate various wired or wireless communication technologies through a simple communications port.