Patent ID: 7921315

Claim:
A method of managing power consumption in a data center, the data center comprising one or more computing devices, each computing device connected to a plurality of power supplies, each power supply connected through a power line to one of a plurality of circuit breakers, each power supply comprising a power supply communications device, each circuit breaker comprising a circuit breaker communications device, the power supply communications devices and the circuit breaker communications devices capable of data communications through power lines, each power supply connected through an out-of-band communications link to a management module, the management module managing the computing devices, power supplies, and circuit breakers in the data center, the method comprising: reporting, by a circuit breaker communications device of one of the circuit breakers to the management module, a current power load of the circuit breaker, the report transmitted from the circuit breaker communications device through a power supply communications device of a power supply currently providing power to a particular computing device and through an out-of-band communications link to the management module, upon receiving the report of the current power load, determining, by the management module, whether the current power load of the circuit breaker is greater than a predetermined threshold; and if the current power load of the circuit breaker is greater than the predetermined threshold, reducing, by the management module, power consumption through the circuit breaker of the particular computing device.