Power control system and control method for the same

A control method for a power control system including an information processing apparatus, a power amount measurement apparatus that measures the amount of power consumption of the information processing apparatus, and a power management apparatus that manages the amount of power consumption of the information processing apparatus, the method comprising:

• accepting, in the power management apparatus, reference values for the amount of power consumption that are respectively associated with a plurality of control modes for reducing the amount of power consumption of the information processing apparatus and are used for the information processing apparatus to shift to the control modes, where the greater the reference value is, the smaller the amount of power consumption of the control mode associated therewith is, and accepting power saving settings that are respectively associated with the plurality of control modes and restrict a function that is executable in the information processing apparatus;
• transmitting, in the power management apparatus, the reference values and the power saving settings that are associated with the plurality of control modes and have been accepted in the acceptance to the information processing apparatus;
• receiving, in the information processing apparatus, the reference values and the power saving settings that are associated with the plurality of control modes and have been transmitted in the transmission;
• requesting, in the information processing apparatus, the power amount measurement apparatus to measure the amount of power consumed by the information processing apparatus during a predetermined power control period, and receiving an actual value of the amount of power that has been consumed by the information processing apparatus during the predetermined power control period, and that has been transmitted from the power amount measurement apparatus in response to the request;
• determining, in the information processing apparatus, whether each of the reference values corresponding to the plurality of control modes is less than the received actual value of the amount of power consumption;
• and
• performing, in the information processing apparatus, control in which if one or more reference values determined in the determination as being less than the actual value exist, a shift is made to the control mode corresponding to the greatest reference value among the one or more reference values determined as being less than the actual value, and power saving control is performed in accordance with the power saving setting corresponding to the control mode,
• wherein in the control,
• if execution of a job instructed by a user is restricted depending on the power saving setting corresponding to the control mode that is being executed, control content according to the control mode is further changed to control content that has been determined as a substitution for the control content and that allows the job to be executed, and the job is executed.