From the Man Himself (Clem):
JL
Hello, and thank you for the new release. I have a question about the power-profiles – how and when are they applied? Here is why I ask. I have custom settings – set by tlp and by scripts – and I don’t want Cinnamon to override those settings. Thanks.
Clem
Hi JL,
They’re applied by power-profiles-daemon. Note that Cinnamon supports it as a feature but doesn’t depend on it. If you’re using TLP you can remove power-profiles-daemon for it not to interfere. The profiles will just then disappear in the Cinnamon Power Settings and power applet.
https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4785
Now my only question is, which is better, tlp or power-profiles-daemon? Guess I'll have to run some tests.
Oh yeah, and what about auto-cpufreq?