Controlling devices using a rich representation of their environment

A technique is described herein for using computing technology to intelligently manage the consumption of a resource in a physical environment and/or controlling the physical environment in other ways. The technique maintains environment information that describes entities within the physical environment, together with the relationships among the entities. The technique leverages the environment information and collected sensor data to generate forecast data using one or more machine-trained models. The technique then leverages the environment information, sensor data, and forecast data to generate a control plan. The control plan provides a strategy for controlling the physical environment that satisfies a specified optimization objective. In one use case, the technique contributes to the efficient consumption of power provided by a distribution system by avoiding consumption of power in periods in which the distribution system is expected to experience high loads.