A system and method for automatically suspending power from an IEEE 802.3af Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) switch to one or more Powered Devices (PDs) in accordance with user defined power allocation policies is disclosed. The PSE switch includes a classifier to associate each switch port with a power allocation policy and assign the applicable power priority level. The IEEE 802.3af PSE switch also includes a power manager to selectively allocate power between the PDs in accordance with those policies during a power outage, for example. If the switch is unable to provide power to each of the PDs, power to ports associated with a relatively low power priority is suspended before suspending power to higher priority ports. The policies may be automatically distributed to and implemented by multiple devices throughout a network without an administrator manually configuring the priorities base on knowledge of the specific types of end nodes coupled to the various ports or their priorities.