A system for load control in an electrical power system is described, wherein one or more data interface devices are provided to a cooling system. The data interface devices are configured to receive commands for controlling the cooling system. A remote monitoring system, such as a monitoring system operated by a power company or a power transmission company sends one or more commands to the data interfaced devices to adjust loading on the electrical power system. In one embedment, the monitoring system sends shutdown commands. In one embedment, the monitoring system sends commands to tell a compressor in the cooling system to operate in a relatively low-speed mode. In one embedment, the monitoring system sends tell the compressor and/or the cooling system to operate in a relatively low-power mode. In one embodiment, the commands are time-limited, thereby allowing the cooling system to resume normal operation after a specified period of time. In one embodiment, the commands include query commands to cause the cooling system to report operating characteristics (e.g., efficiency, time of operation, etc.) back to the monitoring center.