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Use Cases

PROFIenergy handles the following typical plant needs:

Brief Pauses (up to one hour) - In general, these are planned (e.g. lunchtime breaks), and they last from a few minutes to up to one hour. Safety-related functions are retained and protected. When production restarts, the system activates the ECUs in a pre-defined switch-on sequence and checks that they all have started correctly. The system then restarts the production process. Longer Pauses (a range of hours or days) - This is similar to the first one, the difference being the duration - a pause can lasts for hours (e.g. overnight) or even days (e.g. weekends and holidays). Additional ECUs can be put into standby, or switched off completely, or the same ones can be put in a more energy saving state. PROFIenergy allows for intermediate energy-saving modes to be triggered. Unscheduled Pauses (typically caused by equipment failures) – This is also similar to the ones above, but the user doesn’t know when the interrupt will occur, nor how long it will last. Initially, the ECU is put into a ‘stop’ condition to reduce energy consumption as if for a brief pause. Once the pause duration is known, the equipment can be put into an even more energy-saving state if appropriate. Measuring the Load – Energy demand data is acquired from the ECU for display and visualization. This can lead to more effective energy management strategies. Demand-led energy management also becomes possible.

The first version of the PROFIenergy Profile focuses on electrical energy. However, other energy resources are consumed by manufacturing lines (e.g. gas, steam, compressed air and water). The consumption of energy in these types of system may be added to a future PROFIenergy specification.

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