February 13, 2014 – The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) added energy management functions to CC-Link IE, the open automation network technology, to create CC Link IE Energy, a combined energy and production management control system. The new CC-Link IE Energy capabilities allow production managers to easily monitor energy consumption by individual machines or processes over the same networks they already use for general control purposes. CC-Link IE is a high-performance, gigabit Industrial Ethernet open network technology that handles both control and information data at high speed to provide efficient, integrated factory and process automation.
With the addition of energy management functions, CC-Link IE Energy provides real-time monitoring of a plant’s many energy-consuming devices, all of which must work in unison to complete the production process. Monitoring of the individual devices ensures energy optimization of each device. “Energy management is now firmly on the agenda of many organizations, particularly manufacturing companies whose energy consumption is typically higher than that of non-manufacturers. In addition to their concerns about meeting energy efficiency regulations, many companies now realize that efficient use of energy is simply good business,” said Robert Miller, Director, CC-Link Partner Association-Americas.
“There are also social and shareholder pressures for companies to be good corporate citizens and to do their part to protect the environment.” Easily installed using a single cable network, CC-Link IE Energy can control entire production systems and feed real-time production information to enterprise management IT systems. A controller connected to the network analyzes data in real time and issues energy management instructions. Combining production and control information with energy information facilitates simultaneous cross-optimization of operational control and energy management. "CC-Link IE Energy is the latest example of our association's commitment to provide industry-leading technology solutions.
We previously added motion and safety control capabilities to the network. Now with the additional energy management functions, CC-Link IE Energy is fulfilling its promise to be a single, high performance, open Ethernet technology that offers the automation features required by today's applications," stated Miller.
About the CLPA
The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) is an international organization with over 2,000 member companies worldwide. The partners’ common objective is promotion and technical development of the family of CC-Link open network technologies. Over 1,200 certified products are now available from over 250 manufacturers. CC-Link is the leading open industrial automation network technology in Asia and is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and the Americas. The American headquarters is near Chicago, IL.