Patent ID: 8548638

Claim:
An energy management system for at least one managed device disposed to receive energy via a meter connected to an energy supply including at least one of an secondary external energy source and an internal energy source, the internal energy source configured to provide primary power for the at least one managed device, the system comprising: a system controller comprising a computer processor configured for communication with the at least one managed device, the meter, and a computer readable storage medium containing computer executable instructions that when executed by the computer processor performs a method comprising: obtaining an energy consumption rate of the at least one managed device from the meter; determining whether the energy consumption rate exceeds energy available from the internal energy source configured to provide primary power for the at least one managed device; obtaining demand information from a demand information source, the demand information comprising information about a demand state of the external energy source; determining from the demand information whether the demand state of the external energy source is a peak demand state; determining a priority of the at least one managed device; determining an energy need of the at least one managed device; and instructing the at least one managed device to employ an operational mode based on the priority, the energy need, the demand state and whether the energy consumption rate of the at least one managed device exceeds energy available from at least one of the external energy source and internal energy source.