I recently upgraded from Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.6, and noticed that the power saving profiles have disappeared from the menu bar’s Battery Status menus. Luckily, this functionality is still accessible via the command line.
Open Terminal and type the following command in order to set the profile to be used when using the battery:
pmset -b modenum
Replace modenum with one of the following values:
1 – Better Energy Savings
2 – Normal
3 – Better Performance
-1 – Custom
In order to set the profile used when connected to AC power, change -b to -c. I am able to use the above commands with neither administrator nor root privileges. Your settings should be reflected in the Energy Saver preference pane.