The transfer and usage of a modulated carrier signal within a power signal on a power line communication system is described. The modulated signal comprises metadata which is transmitted at a different frequency than the transmitted power. The metadata, including such elements as energy costs, providers, renewable source status and originating location, may be used by consumers to make subsequent purchasing decisions. Additionally, the energy costs of any given computer node commonly distributed in a grid architecture may be collected by a workload dispatcher in order to make more accurate cost and energy source based dispatch decisions. The consumer may be able to communicate directly back to the power provider. The use of computer-readable medium and product containing instructions that are implemented on a computer is also covered. Finally, the invention may be deployed on behalf of the consumer by a third party service provider.