California-based Green Plug has been showing off its new universal power supply technology.

The company has developed software that detects the power requirements of devices that are plugged into the power supply and automatically adjusts the power flow to suit the device.

“We've developed an interactive protocol that lets a device negotiate it's own power needs,” said Paul Panepinto, executive vice president of sales and marketing.

“I've owned 20 computers in my life and they've all come with different power supplies that are still hanging around. So we developed a system to overcome the differences in supplies.”

The system is being built into a two port universal power supply, claimed to be the world's smallest, which will be released by Innergie in the summer.

Panepinto explained that the company was set up as an environmental firm to deal both with the amount of power supplies in landfill and to cut the use of power plugs, which when left with the devices they power off, consume nearly as much power as when they are being used.

At CES, Green Plug is also promoting I Want My Green Plug, a new online social network where consumers suggest the devices they most want powered by a universal supply.