Abstract: An energy management system designed to reduce the costs of electrical energy particularly applicable to service businesses such as restaurants, service stations, convenience and grocery stores and the like. The system includes controllers to sequentially and in a predetermined manner initiate operation of a plurality of loads such as appliances and other devices thereby to reduce the demand rate for electricity. A plurality of operating modes are designed for the particular loads or devices and determine the quantity of energy needed under various operating conditions, the operating modes consuming reduced power and generally being associated with a duty cycle. A capacitance bank is associated with those loads having motors to increase the power factor when the motors are under operation. A timer may automatically initiate and terminate operation of the motor and the associated capacitance bank.