The introduction of ISO 50001 - the first international standard for energy management - is a very positive move for business and the energy profession.
It has the potential to act as a common guide for energy management across the world and enable global companies to apply the same management system across their entire operations.
The introduction of the standard will help promote an improvement in quality of energy management within companies and those involved with its implementation.
The common approach will increase the skills of energy professionals and the relevance of the best practice that emerges.
A recent survey of public and private sector organisations by the British Standards Institute1 found that 84% of organisations carry out some form of energy performance monitoring, however only 34% of companies had an energy management system and 36% had an energy policy.
Interestingly only 12.5% of respondents thought that their energy management systems were “very good”; the introduction of ISO 50001 will increase the number of companies with energy management systems and also their quality.
ISO 50001 is closely aligned to ISO9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management).
These standards are widely deployed amongst organisations, and integrating an energy management system into these pre-existing systems should be relatively straightforward.
For those organisations that do not operate a quality or environmental management system, the adoption of ISO 50001 is a good introduction to the continuous improvement approach of plan-do-check-act that lies behind this family of standards and will deliver immediate benefits to the business through a reduction in energy consumption and costs.
Of course the appearance of a new standard does not necessarily mark a transition in the attitude of the market to energy management or to the competency of individuals and organisations to carry it out.
It does, however, provide a framework for organisations to make energy management an integrated part of the way they do business which will lead to an improvement in their energy performance on a continuous basis.
It will also help professionalise the service provided by energy management consultants and service companies.
What Does it Contain?
Like any good standard, ISO 50001 gives an organisation the key management steps it needs to manage and reduce their energy consumption.
In common with 9001 and 14001, the focus is on reviewing outcomes to give a continuous improvement approach that can be so effective in managing energy. Furthermore since consumption is so often regarded as an overhead rather than a controllable resource by many within organisations, the potential for ISO 50001 to make an impact is great.
ISO call their approach plan-do-check-act, which is represented by the energy management diagram below.
Our experience is that such an approach is highly successful at transforming the way organisations think about and consume energy, and can lead to sustainable savings of between 2% and 15%.
Figure 1: Energy Management Model ISO 2011
The guide describes how energy management should fit into the management hierarchy and includes the key components of a good energy management system such as: policy; planning; objective & target setting; baseline performance KPI’s; training; engagement; communication; procuring equipment; and design.
The Case For Implementation
By applying the principles laid out in ISO50001, organisations will now put a simple framework in place to achieve their energy business goals.
This will be achieved by improving the competency and effectiveness of their own management team and also of the market that may provide them with the solutions they need to help solve one of the historic problems with energy management – the sustainability of the savings achieved.
Is everything perfect with the Standard?
Well many (particularly energy professionals) may find the lack of prescription a weakness, but experience has shown that for standards designed to bring about a continuous improvement in the management of a resource, such as energy, it is best achieved through guiding principles that are applied in accordance with the requirements and capabilities of the organisation.
That is not to say that organisations should use the standard to go it alone.
It is rare for an organisation to have the skills to design, deploy and refresh an effective energy management system; a good consultant is more likely to be able to do this more cheaply and more effectively than a company’s own resource; energy services such as monitoring, reporting, training and audits are important components of high quality energy management.
A minor issue is the rather vague requirement for the calibration of metering.
This may cause problems, as meters used for billing purposes by utilities are calibrated before installation and then assumed to be accurate until being replaced in 15 to 30 years time; requiring that good quality sub meters are calibrated whilst in service is by and large an unnecessary cost. The introduction of ISO 50001 is to be welcomed by all organisations and individuals interested in improving energy performance of organisations.
It will provide a framework for energy professionals to practice and improve their skills and for businesses to integrate energy management into their everyday operations.
For those who already have 9001 and/or 14001 systems in place, integrating ISO 50001 will be straightforward and worthwhile; for organisations that don’t have these systems in place, ISO 50001 is a great place to start and one that can mobilise your whole organisation to a worthwhile goal that will conserve precious resources and reduce business risks and costs.
1 BSI Energy Management Research Survey, October 2009
© Sinclair Knight Merz
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Who does this affect?
All organisations required to comply with the myriad of compliance conditions set down by Government authorities
What do I need to do?
Ensure your Health, Safety and Environmental compliance systems are up to date
About the Authors
Keith Webster is Global Service Line Leader for Climate Change and Resource Efficiency at Sinclair Knight Merz. As well as having a good technical knowledge of energy reduction opportunities, Keith has focussed on awareness and engagement of climate change issues as a key ingredient of emissions reduction projects along with the devolvement of energy budgets and making people accountable
John Fifer is Practice Leader for our GHG emissions reduction projects within the Climate Change Group at SKM Enviros in the UK. John is specialised in delivering change management and technical programmes on the efficient use of energy and pollution abatement in all sectors of industry.
© Sinclair Knight Merz
Requests to re-publish achieve articles should be made here