## Energy Management Stage

The *Priority* of the stages determines the order in which the stages are switched.
A stage with higher priority is preferably activated earlier and deactivated later.
Stages with the same priority can be switched simultaneously if no other conditions prevent this.

A stage can be activated when all of the following conditions are met:
- The trigger condition of the energy management is met.
- The stage is not blocked via the lock object.
- The configured dead time since the last deactivation has expired.
- The maximum number of enable operations per day has not yet been reached.

If several inactive stages can be activated, the stage with the highest priority is activated first.

A stage can be deactivated when the minimum runtime has expired and one of the following conditions applies:
- The trigger condition is no longer met.
- The lock object is active.

If several active stages can be deactivated, the stage with the lowest priority is deactivated first.

Practical example:
A *Minimum runtime* and the *Enable operations per day* setting are useful, for example, for a washing machine.
A washing machine should not be switched off again while a wash cycle is running.
Setting *Enable operations per day* = 1 prevents another wash cycle from being started after the current cycle has finished.

A *Dead time* is particularly useful for devices that should not restart immediately after being switched off.
This includes, for example, heat pumps, compressors, or some air conditioning units.
The dead time prevents frequent start-stop cycles in quick succession.
