1. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instructions therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method, the method comprising: maintaining a power assertion indicator for a device component having a power level, the power assertion indicator indicating whether the power level of the device component is allowed to be lowered; sending a power assertion request from a first process for a data processing task to prevent lowering the power level of the device component before the data processing task is completed; receiving a request by a second process from the first process for the second process to perform operations for the data processing task, wherein the power level of the device component is not allowed to be lowered before the operations are completed via the second process; and lowering the power level of the device component after the data processing task is completed.