Patent ID: 8271806

Claim:
A method comprising: communicating a power status of each of a plurality of power-consuming devices to all other ones of the plurality of power-consuming devices connected to a network such that each of the plurality of power-consuming devices receives the power statuses of all the other ones of the plurality of power-consuming devices, wherein the plurality of power-consuming devices includes at least three power-consuming devices, a first device of the at least three power-consuming devices configured to provide power to other devices of the at least three power-consuming devices responsive to the power statuses of the other devices of the at least three power-consuming devices; and each processing portion of each of the plurality of power-consuming devices devising a power strategy plan to negotiate sharing power between the plurality of power-consuming devices responsive to the communicating; wherein: devising the power strategy plan includes when the first device of the at least three power-consuming devices has an excess amount of power and is designated to transmit a limited amount of the excess amount of power to charge two or more devices of the at least three power-consuming devices, negotiating a power sharing strategy between the two or more devices such that each of a second device and a third device receives a certain percentage of the limited amount of the excess amount of power.