To provide an overview of its vision, ODVA - a global trade association comprised of automation companies - has introduced a white paper titled, Optimization of Energy Usage. The paper is geared to help sustainability executives at industrial consumers, and product managers at device vendors map out their product roadmaps to support sustainability objectives and business goals.

Optimization of energy usage (OEU) results from the industrial consumer being empowered with the ability to make informed choices regarding the use and conservation of energy. ODVA's plan for OEU leverages the core competency of its information and communication technologies, which are grounded in its media independent network protocol - the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP). For OEU between processes and other systems in the production domain, ODVA seeks to include energy-oriented objects and services within CIP that permit the transparent and seamless flow of energy information and enable systems to perform energy metering and management.

"Energy is essential to produce products, but has been an invisible line item on production bills of materials and consequently an unmanaged resource," said Katherine Voss, executive director, ODVA. "With its vendor-neutrality, open participation and open technologies, ODVA provides the ideal forum for building consensus among market leaders in industrial automation around the next generation of productivity enhancements for industry."

Click here for a free copy of the white paper.