Evolving the CIP Energy Objects
Richard (Rick) Blair
Senior Principal Network Architect
Schneider Electric
Todd Andrew Snide
Consulting Engineer
Schneider ElectricPresented at the ODVA
2023 Industry Conference & 22nd Annual Meeting
October 18, 2023
El Vendrell, Spain
Abstract
The intention of the CIP Energy™ initiative, as stated on the ODVA website, is to allow for the
optimization of energy usage and scalability of implementation from basic energy awareness to advanced
functions of energy control including dynamic demand-response. The ODVA Energy Applications SIG
originally defined three specific objects, the Base Energy Object, the Electrical Energy Object, and theNon-Electrical Energy Object. Later, the Power Management Object and the Power Curtailment Object
were added. These five CIP Objects became the basis for CIP Energy™.
When developed between 2010 and 2015, these objects were state of the art and sufficient for the times.
It was discovered during the design of the Power Curtailment Object that revisions were needed for thePower Management Object. A specification enhancement was started but not completed before the
ODVA Energy Applications SIG became dormant.
With stronger industry concerns over cost savings in production, energy usage is one of the largest costs
and a big concern. It is time to rediscover and modernize the CIP Energy Objects.
This paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the current CIP Energy Objects and suggest
ways to modernize them, which could include working closely with the OPC Foundation, for today’s
industrial operations.

Keywords
Energy, OEU, CIP, EtherNet/IP, Modbus, Sustainability, Control, Power, Energy Management

Definition of terms
Aggregation – a data representation of the totalized energy or power consumed or generated by acollection of devices
Child – a member of a collection of devices being represented by an aggregation object
CIP – the Common Industrial Protocol, an industrial automation communications protocol suite supported
by ODVA
2023 ODVA Industry Conference

1©2023 ODVA, Inc.

Device Profile – a definition of a device’s object model, configuration and behavior that promotes
consistency and interoperability among devices of the same type

Overview - CIP Energy Objects
Energy is an indispensable component of industrial production but has been ineffectively managed as a
production resource. Acquiring energy information detailed enough for action has been difficult and costly.
Automation to control energy usage and related costs has likewise been costly, characterized by one-ofa-kind designs, hours of custom engineering effort and difficulty in cost justification. ODVA’s Optimizationof Energy Usage (OEU™) comprises a three-tiered approach to increasing the availability of less costly,
more granular energy information, and standardizes approaches to the automation of power and energy
management. The three phases of OEU are:
• Awareness of energy usage,• Consuming energy more efficiently, and• Procuring energy at the lowest cost.
Between 2010 and 2015, the ODVA Energy Applications Special Interest Group (SIG) publishedspecifications for a family of independent but related CIP Energy Objects to support the OEU strategy andsupport the addition of energy capabilities to a variety of CIP devices.

Awareness of Energy Usage
Three related object specifications comprise the energy awareness suite of ODVA energy capabilities.
The Base Energy Object lets devices from simple to complex report their energy usage in a standardizedway, in units of kilowatt-hours (kWh). This native electrical energy unit was selected because many ODVA
members are electrical device vendors. The Global Reporting Institute (GRI)1 specifies units of gigajoules(GJ) for energy reporting; however, values in kWh may be easily converted to values in GJ by multiplying
by 0.0036. This object also reports accuracy and information on how the data is generated. The Base
Energy Object can also be used to report the aggregated usage of a collection of devices, and can act as
a proxy, reporting energy usage for devices that cannot do so themselves, or can but are not CIP
devices.
The Electrical Energy Object reports a variety of electrical measurements, including voltages, currents,
complex power and energy, power factor, frequency, etc., similar to the types of parameters you wouldfind in a high-end meter or power monitor.
The Non-Electrical Energy Object reports usage of energy resources such as natural gas, steam, fuel oil,
hot water and chilled water, each in their native energy units (for example, therms, pounds, gallons, Btus,
joules, etc.).
Some devices may report very accurate energy data, but high accuracy is not really needed at the device
level. There will usually be revenue-accurate meters upstream in the energy distribution network. Theenergy awareness objects are intended to cost-effectively fill in missing pieces of the energy usage
picture where today little or no information exists. This more complete energy picture provides valuable
information on the energy behavior of a machine, zone, line, or area, allowing users to make decisions
that result in reduced energy usage and cost.
One or more Electrical Energy or Non-Electrical Energy Object instances are associated with an instanceof the Base Energy Object. A Base Energy Object instance can report the aggregated usage of acollection of similar Non-Electrical Energy Object instances (“similar” means the instances report usage ofthe same energy resource in the same units) and/or Electrical Energy instances. It then reports theaggregated usage in kWh in its own instance attributes, and in the native non-electrical energy units in an
2023 ODVA Industry Conference2©2023 ODVA, Inc.

associated instance of the Non-Electrical Energy Object. That way, the user can get a single view of all of
the energy being used in multiple devices and subsystems in the base units (kWh) while also being able
to monitor the non-electrical loads in the units that make sense for those types of devices andsubsystems.
Required

BASE ENERGY OBJECT
Type, Capabilities,
Accuracy, Path
Attributes
ELECTRICAL
ENERGYOBJECTNONELECTRICAL
ENERGYOBJECT

Energy Odometer
Attribute(consumed,
generated, etc.)

Total Energy Odometer,
Transfer Rate MeteringState, etc.
Attributes

Optional
Conditional

Explicit
Message
RouterFigure 1: Relationship between the Base Energy Object and the Electrical and Non-Electrical Objects

Together, this collection of energy objects provides a standardized way to obtain detailed energy usage
information in an industrial setting at very low cost. This can help users apply a more direct relationshipbetween products and the energy utilized to manufacture them.

Consuming Energy More Efficiently
The Power Management Object provides a simple, standardized interface for commanding devices,
machines, work cells, and production lines into low-power modes at lunch time, shift changes, weekends,
when a bottleneck or breakdown occurs, or during other significant idle periods. A controller or software
application requests a pause expected to last for a specified time. In response, the device reduces thepower it uses by going to a predefined pause mode, and letting the application know how much notice togive so the device will be ready when needed. Based on the requested pause time, a device selects apause mode that saves the most energy possible for the duration and condition of the device. The lowest
power level is the “sleeping” mode, where it effectively shuts down except for just enoughcommunications hardware capability to listen for a wake-up call.
Where the Power Management Object saves energy during idle periods, the Power Curtailment Object
helps to save energy and avoid demand peaks while production continues at a lower rate of energy
consumption. The Power Curtailment Object uses predefined curtailment levels to reduce power.
Curtailment levels are similar in function to pause modes, except the energy managing application
requests a desired power level instead of the duration of a pause.
Both the Power Management and Power Curtailment objects act as servers to an energy management
client application. The client, which may in turn be a server itself to another higher-level energy
management client application, needs to maintain awareness of the big-picture operational environment
to manage the energy behavior of its owned devices using services defined in the object specifications.

2023 ODVA Industry Conference

3©2023 ODVA, Inc.

CIP
PARAMETEROBJECT

BASE ENERGY OBJECT
Type, Capabilities,
Accuracy, Path
Attributes
ELECTRICAL
ENERGYOBJECTNONELECTRICAL
ENERGYOBJECT

Energy Odometer
Attribute(consumed,
generated, etc.)

Total Energy Odometer,
Transfer Rate MeteringState, etc.
Attributes

CIP
IDENTITYOBJECT

Explicit
Message
RouterRequired
Optional
Conditional

POWER
CURTAILMENTOBJECT

POWER
MANAGEMENTOBJECT

Explicit
Explicit
Explicit
Messages
Messages
Messages
CIP CONNECTION OBJECTCIP Network (e.g. EtherNet/IPTM, DeviceNetTM)
Figure 2: Relationship between the Power Objects and the Energy Objects

Both the Power Management and Power Curtailment objects provide a cascade capability, allowing childobjects to be controlled by the parent, simplifying the interface to a controlling energy client.

Improvements for Better Energy Management

Changes are needed in the CIP Energy™ Objects for better utilization and execution in products andsystems. Some of the proposed changes are simple and quick to implement. The majority of the changes
will require more work and possibly some form of prototyping before release.
The easiest and simplest changes to consider are to align the naming convention of the various objects.
The Base, Electrical, and Non-Electrical Energy Objects all use “Energy” in the title and descriptions,while the Power Management Object and the Power Curtailment Object use “Power” in their titles anddescriptions. To maintain consistent naming and to prevent confusion for the users and developers, thePower Management Object could be renamed the Energy Management Object and the Power
Curtailment Object could be renamed the Energy Curtailment Object. A question may be raised if thepower objects manage power or energy. Power is amount of work done over a time period (P=W/t).
Where, energy is power multiplied by time (E=Pt). It can be argued that the objects manage both powerand energy, so energy in the titles would be fitting.
The CIP Energy objects defined an Odometer data type for tracking energy data. This data type consistsof multiple elements, each with a range from 0 to 999. While this data type makes sense for visual display
purposes, it is an inefficient data type for internally managing energy data. A 64-bit signed or unsigned
integer would be a better choice. Additionally, the rollover behavior of the signed odometer data type2023 ODVA Industry Conference

4©2023 ODVA, Inc.

does not follow typical rollover behavior of native signed integer types, returning to zero instead of themax positive or negative number.
During the development of the Power Curtailment object, several similar services or properties defined in
the Power Management object were enhanced or revised. As a result, the ODVA Energy Applications
SIG drafted a Specification Enhancement (CIPSE) CIPSE 0243 008 that was started in May 2014. This
CIPSE went through an initial review from several SIG members but was never completed. This CIPSE
update was a major rewrite of the Power Management Object.
One of the most powerful features of the Power Management and Power Curtailment objects is the ability
to establish parent-child relationships (cascade). This provides the capability for a single parent object,located in, for example, a line controller, to manage or curtail energy in the remaining devices in a systemor machine, effectively giving an energy management system a single point of access to the system ormachine. This cascading feature was significantly revised during the development of the Power
Curtailment object and this enhancement is reflected in in CIPSE 0243 008.
The released energy objects have a reduced set of features. When compared to vendors that have very
feature rich metering products, there is functionality in meters that cannot be managed or measured in thecurrent energy objects.

Additional Use Cases for Energy

The working hypothesis for Optimization of Energy Usage Use Cases is as follows:
1. Energy is essential to produce products but has been an invisible line item on production bills ofmaterials and consequently an unmanaged resource,
2. Energy should be a managed resource in the production domain, and3. The availability of energy information and visibility of energy consumption will promoteawareness by industrial consumers of the need to manage energy as a production resource
which, in turn, will lead to best practices in OEU for the industrial consumer.
The additional elements of Optimization of Energy Usage that will be addressed in ongoing work within
ODVA are:• Transacting energy for the best results – by leveraging asset management and internal facility
and process energy delivery systems, the industrial consumer can interface with the Power Grid
domain to procure and exchange energy for the best result. By dynamically and transparently
managing demand-response mechanisms, industrial consumers will be able to transact energy
to achieve individualized best results based on cost, source, supply, or environmental impact.

Working with OPC Foundation

The Power Consumption Management Group was announced at the Hannover Fair on the 30th of May
2022. This group is a partnership between ODVA, OPC Foundation, Profibus & Profinet International (PI),and Verband Deutscher Maschinen und Anlagenbau (VDMA). The intention of the group is “to harmonize
and standardize energy consumption information on the shop floor” as quoted from the ODVA webpage3.
Al Beydoun, President, and Executive Director of ODVA, states “This Power Consumption Management
collaboration will help ensure end users have a highly standardized and interoperable means to reach
their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals.”. Further, this group is backed by theEuropean Union’s goal to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050 under the “European Green Deal”.
As a result of the partnership, a new specification in the OPC United Architecture (OPC UA) will be written
and published.
It will be important that CIP Energy™ and the associated power and energy objects are updated to alignwith power consumption management OPC UA specification. Since the intended goal of OPC Foundation
and ODVA, under the Power Consumption Management Group is ensure standardization of energy
2023 ODVA Industry Conference

5©2023 ODVA, Inc.

information, then updates to the power/energy objects mentioned in this paper must be a priority for
ODVA and its member companies.

Market and Customer Readiness

It is time to restart the Optimization of Energy Usage and the ODVA Energy Applications SIG. There is astrong concern over energy usage throughout sectors of automation, including industial automation
businesses. The best way to address this concern is through better energy management systems.
The market is ready. Market.us2 estimates the current value of the Global Energy Management System
market at 55.2 billion dollars. Further, they estimate that this market will grow to 208.4 billion dollars by
2032. The Compound Average Growth Rate (CAGR) over this period would be 14.6%. There is a strong
market pull for OEU™.
The customer wants better energy management systems, as evidenced by the predicted market growth.
However, the customer must have certain needs satisfied in order to adopt the systems. The energy
management systems must be easy to install and have ease of use. The customer wants the cost of
implementation to be as low as possible. A multiple vendor solution is needed so the customer is notlocked to a single vendor and can install best-in-class devices throughout the system. When the customer
looks at the cost of energy today, the customer sees a higher return on investment (ROI) with theapplication of energy management systems. Since the CIP Energy™ Initiative through the ODVA Energy
Applications SIG can provide the required solution and answers the customer needs, it is time to restart
both.
There is governmental and societal pressure on our customers to reduce energy usage. Many country
and local governments have policies and programs to reduce GreenHouse Gases (GHG) and companies’
carbon footprints. The World Economic Forum states “With industry responsible for 30% of global CO2
emissions, industrial clusters will be a critical player in accelerating the path towards net zero”. 4 The ideal
goal is net-zero carbon emissions. All levels of society and governments are calling for a solution. We canprovide that solution, together.

Evolving the Energy Management Work

There are many reasons to update or evolve the CIP Energy Initiative. But to do so, the ODVA Energy
Applications SIG would need to be restarted. The SIG will need to be actively supported in ODVA by themember companies. It cannot be a one or two company effort. There is plenty of work for the CIP Energy
SIG to enhance the current object specifications.
The changes made to cascading for the Power Curtailment Object will need to be reflected in PowerManagement Object.
The ODVA Energy Applications SIG identified additional material that needed to be included in the CIP
Energy Objects. However, the SIG went into hibernation before completing this work. To incorporate theenhancements, the uncompleted work, and to collaborate with the OPC Foundation energy partnership,
the member companies of ODVA need to drive this activity. The timing could not be better to focus on the
Optimization of Energy Usage for all ODVA members.
If the CIP Energy Initiative is going to be promoted by ODVA, the initial plan needs to be completed.

Conclusion

There is a growing movement of energy awareness in all industries. There is a strong marketing push forbetter Optimization of Energy Usage in Industrial Automation. ODVA was ahead of its time when it
introduced the CIP Energy Initiative. However, the CIP Energy Initiative has fallen behind other energy
management activities.
The implementation of the CIP EnergyTM Objects in ODVA vendor products has been limited. However,
the market needs to see valid and complete energy management solutions for implementation. The

2023 ODVA Industry Conference

6©2023 ODVA, Inc.

current CIP Energy Initiative is not complete. The ODVA Energy Objects need to be enhanced toreestablish their state-of-the-art behavior.
The mix of naming conventions for the energy and power objects can be confusing to the users of theobjects. Consistent use of “Energy” in these objects would unify the message and usage of the objects.
We would have five energy objects: Base Energy Object, Electrical Energy Object, Non-Electrical Energy
Object, Energy Curtailment Object, and the Energy Management Object. These would be the basis for
the ODVA CIP Energy Initiative.
All of the ODVA Energy Objects will need to be updated to reflect the information in the power
consumption management OPC UA specification as drafted by the Power Consumption Management
Group.
There is plenty of work needed to update and complete the ODVA CIP Energy Initiative plan. The time isright to re-energize this effort. It will take a multi-membership effort to make the ODVA CIP Energy
Initiative relevant in the market and useful to our customers.

References

1 Global Reporting Institute (GRI), https://www.globalreporting.org/
2 Market.us, Global Energy Management System Market, March 2023, https://market.us/report/energy-

management-system-market/

3 ODVA, “Joint Consortium Standardizes “Power Consumption Management” for the Shop Floor”,

ODVA.org, May 31, 2022, https://www.odva.org/news/joint-consortium-standardizes-common-powerconsumption-management-for-the-shop-floor/
4 World Economic Forum, “Industrial Clusters: The Net Zero Challenge”, weforum.org, 2023,

https://initiatives.weforum.org/transitioning-industrial-clusters/home******************************************************************************************************************************************************The ideas, opinions, and recommendations expressed herein are intended to describe concepts of the author(s) for the possible useof ODVA technologies and do not reflect the ideas, opinions, and recommendation of ODVA per se. Because ODVA technologies
may be applied in many diverse situations and in conjunction with products and systems from multiple vendors, the reader andthose responsible for specifying ODVA networks must determine for themselves the suitability and the suitability of ideas, opinions,and recommendations expressed herein for intended use. Copyright ©2023 ODVA, Inc. All rights reserved. For permission to
reproduce excerpts of this material, with appropriate attribution to the author(s), please contact ODVA on: TEL +1 734-975-8840
FAX +1 734-922-0027 EMAIL odva@odva.org WEB www.odva.org. CIP, Common Industrial Protocol, CIP Energy, CIP Motion, CIP
Safety, CIP Sync, CIP Security, CompoNet, ControlNet, DeviceNet, and EtherNet/IP are trademarks of ODVA, Inc. All othertrademarks are property of their respective owners.

2023 ODVA Industry Conference

7©2023 ODVA, Inc.