1. A method of controlling power consumption in a high performance computing system having a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes having a given power range, one or more of the plurality of nodes executing an application program, the method comprising: receiving power commands from the application program relative to the one or more nodes executing the application program; and changing the power range, in response to the power commands, from the given power range to a new power range for the one or more nodes for executing the application program, the one or more nodes executing the application program within the new power range.