M1 Mac issue with high 'Energy Impact' & '12-hr Power' values persists in macOS 13.1 Ventura (potential workarounds inside)

The Apple M1 is a line of ARM-based SoCs that include both a CPU and a GPU. The SoC is used in both portable and desktop-based systems, such as the iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets, Mac desktops and laptops.

At the time of its launch, Apple claimed the M1 SoC was the fastest CPU in its league, having low power consumption and the world’s best CPU performance per watt.

Being fast helps it cater to the needs of a larger user base, ranging from students and programmers to content creators.

However, some users are reportedly facing a high energy consumption issue on Apple M1-powered Mac devices. If you too have been facing such an issue with any of your M1 device, then you are not alone.

According to reports (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10), multiple users are complaining that some applications on the latest macOS Ventura have insanely high energy consumption.

The energy consumption on an Apple device can be checked with the help of the Activity Monitor app, under the ‘Energy Impact’ and ’12-hr Power’ columns.

Both values are alarmingly high for different apps such as IDE’s, web browsers such as Google Chrome, and Logitech’s Logi Options app. The problem seems to be affecting only those devices that make use of the M1 SoC.

It must be noted that even though Apple had recently released the macOS Ventura 13.1 update, fixing some bugs and adding to the OS feature set, it didn’t address this problem.

Some are also facing difficulties because of the high power consumption issue that causes excessive battery drain on M1 devices. This means you must charge affected devices more often than prior to Ventura.

So i noticed my Macbook battery draining and i thought it was caused because the software needed to be upgraded. I upgraded the software but my Macbook air M1 is draining battery so fast and the battery health is at 96%
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I’m noticing CRAZY values for “Energy Impact” and “12-hour Power” in Activity Monitor. I started to notice these after upgrading to Ventura. Is this REALLY true, or is this just not accurate?
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I have crazy numbers in energy consumption, but at the same time, laptop is running cool and smooth. Although I noticed decline in battery life, not dramatic but still.
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A MacBook owner took to Reddit and complained that their unit was having high power consumption than normal, even when using it for basic or lightweight tasks such as watching videos on YouTube.

The issue has been persistent for quite a long time, and users feel agitated as it remains unsolved to date.

Unfortunately, Apple has not yet officially acknowledged the issue. So, it looks like affected M1 Mac owners might have to wait a little bit longer before the problem gets fixed.

Fortunately, we did come across some potential workarounds that may help solve the problem for some.

Several claim that Chromium based web browsers have high energy impact on macOS, so it has been suggested that you try switching to Safari or Firefox for surfing the web.

Alternatively, you may also try using version of Chrome optimized for macOS. This should be available via the official Apple App Store.

Also, disabling third-party extensions on affected web browsers may do the trick.

We’ll keep tabs on the high energy impact or high power consumption issue on M1 Mac and update the article as soon as we come across any new information.

Featured image source: Apple M1 SOC.

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