Less than a year after German car-makers asked PI (Profibus and Profinet International) to develop a Profinet-based system for managing the energy consumed by automation equipment, PI has released a profile called Profienergy.

The vendor-neutral profile is designed to be integrated into components such as robots, controllers and drives via  firmware updates. It provides standardised input of parameters, runtime, and diagnostics to manage energy by, for example, switching off equipment not only during weekends and holidays, but also during brief or unscheduled pauses.

The first products to implement the profile are expected to reach the market during 2010.