Real Value of Assets

I have been thinking of the issues of DLC and Assets, which I now think was a distraction. Assets are about M&V. This may not be part of v1.0, as suggested, but it bubbles out of the current EMIX schema work.

Assets are sub-resources that the Resource is willing to expose. The aspects of an Asset that matter is

(1) Data logging (say 5 minute interval data indicating metered EUI, or confirming thermostat set-point, or…)

(2) Promises to make the data logging as requested (which is all a report of thermostat set-point is, or the metering of an autonomous HVAC system is)

There may be constraints on Assets (I’m only willing to set thermostat up to 84, and that for no more than 2 hours) but these look like any other constraints on EMIX resources. These constraints affect how these come to market.

If we follow this, then the listing of assets, description of assets, etc is merely a DPWS discovery of a few oBIX-defined attributes. The request for either point verification (as today) are eventual delivery of a trend (5 minute interval data on x to be delivered hourly/at end of event/…) is already oBIX-defined. The capability of doing trending vs recurring queries is a simple DPWS attribute.

As oBIX is already a simplified abstraction on top of control systems, the translations to SEP/BACnet/LON/Modbus are trivial ad for the most part, pre-existing. Any translation between oBIX and the local protocol trivially fits into the ESI engine (for small hardware based implementations) or is probably already built into the JACE’s and iLONs and other devices that gate to commercial sites. Gating to either SEP2 or SEP1 should be trivial for sites using an internet-based ESI rather than a meter-based one.

The real value of Assets is that in an uncertain world, in which customers do not actually know or control their EU, there has to be some confirmation of a promise kept. As we evolve to a world in which customers do know and control their EU, that need fades away.

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it” -- Upton Sinclair.

Toby Considine
TC9, Inc

OASIS Technical Advisory Board
TC Chair: oBIX & WS-Calendar

TC Editor: EMIX, EnergyInterop

U.S. National Inst. of Standards and Tech. Smart Grid Architecture Committee

Email: Toby.Considine@gmail.com
Phone: (919)619-2104

http://www.tcnine.com/
blog: www.NewDaedalus.com

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