Adaptive computing responsive to environmental conditions

1. A method for adapting the power consumption of a computational device in response to environmental conditions, comprising:

acquiring operating environmental condition data relevant to the generation of electric power in a power grid system from an operating environment feed input;

analyzing the operating environmental condition data to determine an indication of a high demand for electric power from the power grid system; and

a computational device automatically reducing a current amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device if the analyzing determines the high electric power demand indication.

2. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the analyzing the operating environmental condition data determines the indication of the high demand for electric power from the power grid system if the operating environmental condition data indicates that a small size fossil fuel plant is coming on-line to provide power to the power grid system in response to a power demand on the power grid system.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the computational device automatically increasing the current amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device from a current reduced electric power consumption level in response to not determining the indication of the high demand for electric power from the power grid system by analyzing the operating environmental condition data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the operating environment feed is a really simple syndication feed from at least one of an electricity plant and a weather service.

5. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the analyzing the operating environmental condition data determines indication of the high demand for electric power if the operating environmental condition data indicates an unusual weather condition that may result in heavy demand for power from the power grid system.

6. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

regularly updating the acquired the operating environmental condition data;

if changes are found in the updated environmental condition data, updating an internal state table with new downloaded data from the operating environment feed input; and

automatically reducing a present amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device if analyzing the updated state table data determines a high electric power demand indication, or increasing the present amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device if analyzing the updated state table data does not determine a high electric power demand indication.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the operating environmental condition data feed comprises information describing an output capacity and a current output of each of plurality of potential energy producers of the power grid system; and

wherein the analyzing the operating environmental condition data determines the indication of the high demand for electric power from the power grid system if the operating environmental condition data feed information indicates a relatively environmentally-friendly energy producer is near its output capacity.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing the operating environment feed data to determine a high electric power demand indication comprises:

applying a weighted function comprising a linear combination of values obtained from a plurality of different feeds, each of the different feeds having a weight; and

if the linear combination is above a certain threshold, including the high demand indicator in the aggregate feed.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the indication of the high demand for electric power from the power grid system in response to data in the operating environmental condition data that comprises at least one of:

a spot price value of electricity; and

a rate of change of a price of electricity.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of the computational device automatically reducing the current amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device comprises running nonessential services only when the spot price value of electricity is low.

11. A service for adapting the power consumption of a computational device in response to environmental conditions, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure configured to:

acquire operating environmental condition data relevant to the generation of electric power in a power grid system from an operating environment feed input;

analyze the operating environmental condition data to determine an indication of a high demand for electric power from the power grid system; and

cause a computational device to automatically reduce a current amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device if the analyzing determines the high electric power demand indication.

12. The service of claim 11 , wherein the computer infrastructure is further configured to:

determine the indication of the high demand for electric power from the power grid system if the operating environmental condition data indicates that a small size fossil fuel plant is coming on-line to provide power to the power grid system in response to a power demand on the power grid system.

13. The service of claim 12 , wherein the computer infrastructure is further configured to determine the indication of the high demand for electric power from the power grid system if the operating environmental condition data indicates an unusual weather condition that may result in heavy demand for power from the power grid system.

14. The service of claim 12 , wherein the computer infrastructure is further configured to determine the high electric power demand indication in response to data in the operating environmental condition data that comprises at least one of:

a spot price value of electricity; and

a rate of change of a price of electricity.

15. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer readable tangible storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising instructions which, when executed on a computer system, cause the computer system to:

acquire operating environmental condition data relevant to the generation of electric power in a power grid system from an operating environment feed input;

analyze the operating environmental condition data to determine an indication of a high demand for electric power from the power grid system; and

cause a computational device to automatically reduce a current amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device if the analyzing determines the high electric power demand indication.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15 , the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on the computer system, causes the computer system to:

regularly update the acquired the operating environmental condition data;

if changes are found in the updated environmental condition data, update an internal state table with new downloaded data from the operating environment feed input; and

automatically reduce a present amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device if analyzing the updated state table data determines a high electric power demand indication.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15 , the program code comprising instructions which, when executed on the computer system, causes the computer system to analyze the operating environment feed data to determine the high electric power demand indication if the operating environmental condition data feed information indicates a relatively environmentally-friendly energy producer is near its output capacity.

18. A programmable device comprising:

a processing means;

a memory in communication with the processing means comprising a logic component; and

a network interface in communication with the processing means and the memory;

wherein the processing means is configured to:

acquire operating environmental condition data relevant to the generation of electric power in a power grid system from an operating environment feed input;

analyze the operating environmental condition data to determine an indication of a high demand for electric power from the power grid system; and

cause a computational device to automatically reduce a current amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device if the analyzing determines the high electric power demand indication.

19. The programmable device of claim 18 , wherein processing means is configured to:

regularly update the acquired the operating environmental condition data;

if changes are found in the updated environmental condition data, update an internal state table with new downloaded data from the operating environment feed input; and

automatically reduce a present amount of consumption of electric power from the power grid system by the computational device if analyzing the updated state table data determines a high electric power demand indication.

20. The programmable device of claim 18 , wherein processing means is configured to analyze the operating environment feed data to determine a high electric power demand indication by:

determining the indication of the high demand for electric power if the operating environmental condition data indicates that a small size fossil fuel plant is coming on-line to provide power to the power grid system in response to a power demand on the power grid system.