On Thu, 9 Jul 2015 15:51:49 -0700 (PDT), "Ron D."
wrote:

Electric meters are likely a Zigbee (peer to peer) network and eventually communicate via a cell phone data stream. The meters are TWO-WAY. The power company can disconnect power remotely.

Water meters have batteries. Supposedly they are "truck" activated and only talk back when prompted. Yes, they have a battery.

The gas meters, I don;t know, but they may operate the same way as the water meters. They contain batteries.

Battery life is estimated to be about 7 to 10 years as I understand it.
I have a radio connected electric meter here in WA state and power
cannot be disconnected except by someone doing something at the meter
itself. I know this because I needed power disconnected to do some
work where the lines from the meter base enter the shop. PSE sent out
someone to disconnect the power and then re-connect it the next day
after I had done the work. No charge for the service. I suppose it is
possible that they have upgraded the meter without me knowing but as I
recall when they switched me from the old way of using meter readers
to the new fangled radio reporting they had to shut off the power.
They sent us a letter informing us of the time window when we would be
losing power for a short time period. This has not happened again.
Eric