PROFIenergy ensures energy efficiency
25 November 2009
PI (Profibus & Profinet International) is introducing PROFIenergy - a trendsetting Profinet-based solution for energy management of production equipment.
In order to achieve a harmonised and standardised procedure for energy management, representatives of AIDA (the Automation Initiative of German Automobile Manufacturers) requested PI about a year ago to develop a solution. As part of this solution, equipment is to be switched off not only during idle times, such as weekends and holidays. Rather, it must also be possible to switch off individual equipment components or entire systems during brief as well as unscheduled pauses.
PROFIenergy, the vendor-neutral energy savings profile now available, allows operators to achieve effective energy management. The profile can be integrated into individual components (for example, robots, lasers, controllers, or drives) by means of a firmware update. PI is meeting the requests of users who called for a standardised operator input for parameterisation, runtime, and diagnostics.
The working group, which includes device manufacturers and various institutes and users, placed special emphasis on the suitability of the profile for real-world application from the outset. This is an important requirement for rapid implementation of PROFIenergy in products and solutions. Based on the high level of customer interest, implementation into products is expected in 2010.
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