The paper substantiates the application of a universal method for minimizing the consumption of the energy resource, operating life, financial and environmental resources in an electric power system. The method consists in the stabilization of the total consumed power over a given time interval and the distribution of the stabilized consumer load equally among generating units in the case where all units are identical. Where the units are not identical, the consumption of a resource can be minimized by distributing their combined stabilized load based on the condition of equality of the first derivatives of the units’ discharge characteristics.