A method and apparatus for power management of a network element. In one embodiment of the invention, a networking card configuration request is received for a type of networking card irrespective of a networking card of that type being inserted into the network element. The network element does not enable networking cards unless they are successfully configured and inserted. The amount of power that the networking card consumes is determined without reading a power consumption value from that card. If it is determined that allowing that type of networking card to be configured would exceed the power capacity of the network element, the configuration request is denied and the networking card, if or when inserted remains disabled and is not powered up. However, if allowing that type of networking card to be configured would not exceed the power capacity, the configuration request is accepted, the amount of power that type of networking card consumes is allocated, and the card will be enabled when inserted.