Power Management uses Configuration Manager hardware inventory to collect data about computer usage and power settings for computers in the site. There are a number of reports that you can use to analyze this data and determine the optimal power management settings for computers. For example, during the monitoring and planning phase of the power management workflow, you can create collections that are based on the data that is included in the Power Capabilities report and use that data to identify the computers that are not capable of power management. Then, you can exclude those computers from power management.

Important
Do not apply power plans to computers in your site until you collect and analyze the power data from client computers. If you apply new power management settings to computers without first examining the existing settings, you might experience an increase in power consumption.

Power management lets you create power plans that you can apply to collections of computers in your site. These power plans configure Windows power management settings on computers. You can use the power plans that are included with Configuration Manager, or you can configure your own custom power plans. You can use the power data that is collected during the monitoring and planning phase as a baseline to help you evaluate power savings after you apply a power plan to computers. For more information, see Administrator Checklist for Power Management in Configuration Manager.

In the compliance phase, you can run reports that help you to evaluate power usage and power cost savings in your organization. You can also run reports that describe the improvements in the amount of CO₂ generated by computers. Reports are also available that help you validate that power settings were correctly applied to computers and that help you troubleshoot problems with the power management feature.