How can I prevent Windows OS from entering any energy saving mode while my Java application runs?

Question

I wrote a small application that is mostly listening to a message feed on a TCP connection. This application suffers from a connection drop (and so missing important messages) whenever the PC goes into energy saving mode - not sure what level, but the somewhere between screen turn off and before standby. Anyway, my question is, how would I programmatically prevent a windows host from entering a lower level while the application runs - or how can I protect the TCP connection from being dropped?