Patent ID: 8549334

Claim:
An electric power control support device, comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive pieces of operation data regarding respective devices, the pieces of the operation data each indicating an operating section that is a time period during which a corresponding one of the devices is operating; a storage unit configured to store the pieces of operation data received by said receiving unit; a subordinate-superior relationship determination unit configured to determine, from the devices, a superior device that operates independently and a sub device that operates in conjunction with the superior device, based on a temporal position relationship between operating sections temporally overlapping each other between the devices, the temporal position relationship being indicated by the pieces of operation data stored in said storage unit; a specification unit configured to specify the sub device operating while the superior device is not operating, based on the pieces of operation data regarding the devices which are stored in said storage unit; and an electric power control support execution unit configured to transmit a signal to one of (a) the sub device specified by said specification unit and (b) a device to perform processing based on an operation state of the sub device, the signal being for supporting electric power control of the sub device based on the operation state of the sub device.