A method of flexibly controlling a system including determining control policies for a system having at least one qualitative state goal for the system to achieve, determining a first current qualitative state of the system and generating a qualitative control and state trajectory, provided the current system state is capable of achieving the at least one goal, that enables the system to proceed from the current state to the goal state in the most cost effective and energy efficient manner to conserve power while maintaining any necessary operational constraints on the system.