The present invention provides a sump pump control system. The invention is configured to accept common commands and then translate them from a common command format into device specific commands or command sets. Further, all data stored within the database is unitized thus eliminating the need for the user to do the unit mapping. Using this information, and knowledge of the number and location of electrical meters connected in the distribution system, a population of meters to be polled is determined. Based on the result of the scanning operation that the scan sensing circuit performs over the elongate conductive strips of the second conductive layer, at least one touch location can be detected on each elongate conductive strip of the second conductive layer with respect to each elongate conductive strip of the first conductive layer.