FEATURE ENERGY EFFICIENCY CONNECTING SYSTEMS CLPA’s Industrial Ethernet offering is
CC-Link IE, which enables real time control of the multiple field devices that are connected into an industrial system. CC-Link IE’s capabilities have now been extended with the addition of a new, specialist protocol extension, CC-Link IE Energy. This allows managers to easily monitor energy consumption of individual machines or processes over the same networks they are already using for general control purposes. Manufacturing plants, for example,
John Browett, general manager (Europe) of the CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA), explains how Industrial Ethernet is playing a key role in providing efficient and reliable solutions in order to improve energy management
T
urn the clock back a few years and energy management was viewed as
nothing more than an optional extra. However, over the years the growing awareness of global warming, the introduction of carbon targets and the rapid rise in fossil fuel prices has moved energy management from and a ‘nice to have’ to something that is imperative. In addition, the sudden move away from nuclear power in many countries is making it a more acute topic than ever.
GOOD FOR BUSINESS Not only that but the downturn in the international economy has seen the control of all costs, including energy, become a priority at senior executive level in all types of organisations. Companies are finally realising that energy is a raw material just like cement, steel or wood, and efficient use of it is simply good business sense. Moreover, a reduction in energy consumption is good for both the environment and the bottom line. As such it has become increasingly
important to monitor power systems - both generation and consumption - for efficiency and waste, and a desire to control operation in real time so that performance can be constantly optimised. If new equipment is being installed on a
greenfield site, or if a project calls for all new equipment, it is relatively easy to choose the most efficient solutions. However, retro-fitting energy saving equipment into existing plant and
24 SEPTEMBER 2014 | ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
systems can sometimes prove very tricky. When integrating new equipment into an
existing control network it can cause compatibility and interoperability issues. There are several potential solutions that allow free communications between various pieces of equipment, but selecting the right one for a given job can be more involved than expected. In the last five or so years Industrial Ethernet has been proving increasingly popular because it is almost universally compatible with both existing and new equipment and is now robust enough to stand up to the harshest working conditions.
Above: companies are finally realising that energy is a raw material and efficient use of it is simply good business sense
Left: CLPA’s Industrial Ethernet offering is CC-Link IE, which enables real time control of the multiple field devices that are connected into an industrial system
typically include many energy consuming devices. These could be controlled with a network that incorporates the new CC- Link IE Energy protocol, which would then provide the ability to monitor all of the devices individually and in real time. This would allow optimisation of each device to be achieved. Without CC-Link IE Energy, collecting data from each device and determining how to optimise it would be complicated and in many cases impractical. Instead production managers would only be able to consider overall energy consumption and be unable to focus on achieving true optimisation in all areas of a plant. Equipment manufacturers, suppliers and qualified installation and maintenance engineers have shown a great deal of support for Industrial Ethernet. Significantly it is ‘open’ meaning many control engineering companies make CC-Link IE compatible products that can be ‘mixed and matched’ within a system. This means that users will not find that they are tied into one particular device manufacturer - instead they can choose best in class equipment, or redeploy equipment from other systems, or connect one system with another. Once a CC-Link IE Energy system is in
ROBUST Although standard Ethernet has been popular with information technology systems integrators for many years, for a long time it was not robust or dependable enough for factory floor applications. With the development of deterministic, industrially hardened versions of Ethernet, this has now changed, and all the advantages of Industrial Ethernet are now being recognised.
place, it will make maintaining the optimum performance of a system straightforward. This is done through constant communication between all necessary controllers, devices and supervisory systems. This then makes it easy to adjust settings to adapt quickly to changes in demand, whether they are environmental factors, production issues or feedstock changes. Hence companies will be able to ensure that their use of energy is as efficient as their use of other raw materials and that all cost and regulatory requirements can be met.
CLPA
www.clpa-europe.com T: 07768 338 708
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