Energy management gateway and method thereof

The present invention relates to an energy management gateway configured to be positioned at a premises of a user of the gateway, the gateway comprising: a processor; a user interface; and a storage unit storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the gateway to: in an enabled mode, communicate with an external service provider to obtain external information, and control electrical loads of a plurality of electrical devices at the premises based on said obtained information; in a disabled mode, communicate with the external service provider to obtain external information while not controlling the electrical loads of the plurality of electrical devices at the premises; and switch from the enabled mode to the disabled mode, or vice versa, upon receiving an inputted command to do so via the user interface.