1. A memory system comprising: a physical memory comprised of a plurality of memory devices; and a memory controller in communication with the physical memory and having a logical memory for storing power usage characteristics associated with the physical memory, the power usage characteristics generated in response to a current operating environment of the memory system and correlated to reference patterns that include memory access sequences, wherein power usage characteristic generation includes applying a reference pattern to the physical memory, sampling a power measurement in response to applying the reference pattern, and calculating a power usage characteristic in response to the power measurement.