In general, the present invention discloses a policy-based decision system to manage energy consumption within a complex system, such as a municipality, business or home. These policies help to control energy usage, either for the purpose of conservation or to contend with a shortage situation. In general, policies may be set based on business requirements, including energy demand, energy supply, safety, Quality of Service (QoS) settings per object or groupings, convenience, risk analysis output or events. Among other things the approach described herein discloses the following: creation and management of policies; selection of optimal throttling plan to achieve energy conservation requirements; running of simulation scenarios based on different policies and/or reduction requirements; conducting of risk analysis for different scenarios; etc.