Power management plays perhaps the most integral role in the whole sustainable technology movement. Reducing energy waste means lower electricity bills (and/or greater capacity for adding new machines) as well as a smaller carbon footprint. In an effort to sate customers' thirst for green, vendors have made strides to develop wares aimed at ensuring hardware is using only as much power as necessary to perform ef A startup called Green Plug is adding a new solution to the mix, which it’s showing off at CES 2008. The company has developed an electronics component chip, called the Green Plug Universal Power Protocol (UPP). According to the company, the chip intelligently and efficiently converts power from a single hub to meet the power requirements of various devices, from laptops and printers to MP3 players and power tools.What does that mean? First, consider how power supplies for devices generally work today. Suppose you diligently power up your laptop, MP3 player, and cell phone every night. Each one has its own power supply, which very likely aren’t compatible with one another. Thus, if you lose one, you won’t be able to charge your device until you buy a replacement. So you connect your devices to their respective power supplies. You plug the supplies into the wall socket, and you leave them plugged in for the night. Thing is, the devices likely will be charged well before you wake up the next morning — yet the power supplies will have continued to draw energy from the wall. Even when you detach your devices from the power supply cable the next morning, the supplies will still consume energy if left plugged in. Green Plug aims to address the various nongreen aspects of the traditional electronics-charging scenario. The company is rolling out what it says to be highly efficient DC power hub, capable of converting power to meet devices’ respective voltage and power requirements. Users could simultaneously plug multiple devices into the hub via hybrid USB connectors. The company also has developed a protocol called Greentalk, through which Greentalk-enabled devices can digitally communicate with power supplies to shut off when they no longer require power in standby or no-load mode. Moreover, the company says that consumers can configure the power supplies to charge devices during off-peak hours, thus easing demand on the power grid during peak periods.There’s a lot to like in Green Plug’s product: smarter, more efficient energy conversion, plus fewer cables to deal with (which means fewer headaches as well as less waste). The big question is, how many companies will support the technology? Greentalk won’t just find its way into cell phones, PDAs, laptops, printers, digital cameras, camcorders, cordless drills, MP3 players, and all the other electronic devices the company is targeting. Moreover, not all vendors are lining up to add USB ports to their offerings.I’ll just keep my fingers crossed, though, that Green Plug’s efforts aren’t in vain and that vendors won’t stubbornly stick to their own form factors and inefficient power-conversion methods. This approach brings green benefits to the table as well as greater convenience for end-users (this from a man who spent far too long trying to find the correct connector to transfer images from his camera to his PC). Related links: Highlights from CES 2008 CES groomed for green Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the Sustainable IT blog. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter. Technology Industry