Energy management

What is the ISO 50001 standard?

In order to reduce costs and their environmental footprint, industries are looking to reduce their CO2 emissions as much as possible and to improve their energy efficiency. One of the methods to achieve this result is to implement an Energy Management System (EMS), certified ISO 50001. In this article, discover what this standard is and what it means for industrials.

 

 

The Energy Management System (EMS) is a combination of hardware (e.g., meters for machines) and software that allows to measure its industrial energy consumption accurately.

 

Standard ISO 50001 indicates the level of requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving the EMS. It allows the different organizations involved to have a systemic approach to the continuous improvement of energy performance. It includes different aspects such as:

  • Energy efficiency,
  • energy security,
  • energy use,
  • and its consumption..

 

The goal of the ISO 50001 standard is to help organizations reduce their energy consumption and, at the same time, reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 

The first version of the ISO 50001 standard was published in 2011. It is applicable to all types of organizations, in all sectors, regardless of their size or geographical area. A revised version was published in 2018: the ISO 50001:2018. It includes additional measures to enhance energy efficiency.

 

Why implement the ISO 50001 standard?

 

There are different reasons for an industrials to consider implementing the ISO 50001 standard. The three most important ones are :


  • The reduction of costs and environmental impacts. By obtaining the ISO 50001 standard, the company must necessarily put in place a long-term energy saving approach. These savings can be identified without the need for investment, with an ROI of less than one year, by relying on existing data in the plants. The reduction in energy expenditure at the production site is therefore accompanied by a reduction in the energy cost of products. At the same time, the reduction in energy consumption reduces the company's environmental impact.
  • Obtaining a competitive advantage. A significant number of companies have decided to follow the Paris agreements setting targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. If you are an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and a supplier to one of these companies, they may require you to meet the ISO 50001 standards. Being compliant gives you a decisive advantage over your competitors.
  • Obtaining tax reductions and exemption from regulatory controls. In several European countries, energy-intensive industries have to pass regular energy audits (e.g. every four years). Companies that have implemented an EMS in accordance with ISO 50001 are exempt from this requirement. However, even for small and medium-sized companies, certification is of interest because it allows them to obtain a tax reduction.

 

Another advantage of the ISO 50001 standard is that it is compatible with other standards, such as ISO 9001 "Quality Management" or ISO 14001 "Environmental Management Systems". The ISO 50001:2018 version has a modular structure close to these standards, which allows it, if the two previous ones are already in place, to be implemented with a lower cost.

 

 

How to implement the ISO 50001 standard?

 

A company that chooses to implement this standard will have to invest time and resources in making the necessary energy performance improvements.

 

The standard itself, however, does not specify performance levels to be achieved: it is the industrial director or energy manager who decides on these objectives and creates an action plan. 

 

The goal of the ISO 50001 standard is to establish continuous improvement processes that help companies:

  • To understand in details their energy consumption through an energy consumption analysis tool
  • To develop their energy efficiency improvement strategy
  • To define their objectives and performance indicators
  • To validate the achievement or non-achievement of objectives in dashboards
  • Finally, to verify the validity of the energy performance strategy implemented.

 

The standard recommends a PDCA (Plan, Do, Check Act):

PDCA Energiency

Plan Do Check Act diagram (credit : Energiency)

 

Plan :

The first step of the PDCA is the implementation of the ISO 50001 standard by the management, which must nominate a dedicated Energy Manager and a team. In addition, the company must produce a written document - an energy charter - that defines its action plan and objectives. This charter will then be communicated to employees. During this planning phase, the Significant Energy Uses (high consumption items) should be identified and energy efficiency improvement initiatives should be prioritized. 

 

Do :

Based on the energy charter, the action plan must then be implemented by allocating the necessary resources and determining the tasks to be performed. At this stage, the company's management must provide the energy management department with sufficient human resources to accomplish the tasks by increasing these resources if necessary or by freeing them from other tasks. At this stage, the EMS is finalized and established in the company.

 

Check :

The ISO 50001 standard requires a validation of the EMS results in a quantified way, through key performance indicators or KPI. Thanks to an analysis, the energy management department will ensure that the implementation of the action plan brings the expected results. To measure this, an energy monitoring and tracking technology solution, such as Energiency's software, is required.

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