a new STANDARD

ISO develops an international standard for energy management

In a world first, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has approved the creation of a project committee mandated to develop an international standard on energy management. ISO’s project committee PC 242 aims to develop an International Standard on energy management. The future ISO 50001 will establish a framework for industrial plants, commercial facilities or entire organisations to manage energy.

“The urgency to reduce GHG emissions, the reality of higher prices from reduced availability of fossil fuels, and the need to promote energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources, provides a strong rationale for developing this new standard, building on the most advanced best practices and existing national or regional standards,” explains ISO secretary-general Alan Bryden.

ISO says that the standard will provide all types of organisations and companies with a practical and widely recognised approach to increase energy efficiency, reduce costs and improve their environmental performance by addressing both the technical and management aspects of rational energy use.

The standard is intended to be broadly applicable to various sectors of national economies including utility, manufacturing, commercial building, general commerce and transportation sectors and therefore according to ISO, could have influence on as much as 60% of the world’s energy demand.

According to ISO, the project committee ISO/PC 242 Energy Management will consider the development of a standard containing relevant terms and definitions and providing management system requirements together with guidance for use, implementation, measurement and metrics.

The standard will be based on the continual improvement and Plan-Do-Check-Act approach utilised in ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 to provide compatibility and integration opportunities.

Among the main benefits of the future standard are the following:

• provide organisations and companies (utilities, manufacturers, commerce, buildings, transportation, both private and public) with a well recognised framework for integrating energy efficiency into their management practices
• offer organisations with operations in more than one country a single, harmonised standard for implementation across the organisation
• provide a logical and consistent methodology for identifying and implementing improvements that may contribute to a continual increase in energy efficiency across facilities
• assist organisations to better utilise existing energy-consuming assets, thus reducing costs and/or expanding capacity
• offer guidance on benchmarking, measuring, documenting, and reporting energy intensity improvements and their projected impact on reductions in GHG emissions
• create transparency and facilitate communication on the management of energy, promote energy management best practices, thus reinforcing the value of good energy management behaviours
• assist facilities in evaluating and prioritising the implementation of new energy-efficient technologies
• provide a framework for organisations to encourage suppliers to better manage their energy, thus promoting energy efficiency throughout the supply chain
• facilitate the use of energy management as a component of GHG emission reduction projects
• Targetting broad applicability across national economic sectors, the standard could influence up to 60% of the world’s energy use.

The committee's first meeting was held in the US and attended by delegates from the ISO national member bodies of 25 countries from all regions of the world, as well as representation from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), which has liaison status with PC 242.

All the participating countries have existing activities on energy management and have a strong interest in also developing a harmonised solution at the international level.

As part of the proceedings, delegates described their various initiatives in detail. For example, a presentation was given by UNIDO on the preparatory work the organisation has carried out to support the ISO process by researching energy management needs in developing countries.

This gave the committee an insight into the different policies and situations around the world which need to be taken into account in the development of a globally relevant International Standard for energy management.

Progress was made in the technical discussions and a first working draft has already been created. A major point of discussion is the need to ensure compatibility with the existing suite of ISO management system standards.

The committee therefore took the key decision to base the draft on the common elements found in all of ISO’s management system standards. This will ensure maximum compatibility with key standards such as ISO 9001 for quality management and ISO 14001 for environmental management.

The project committee aims to have ISO 50001 ready for publication by the end of 2010.

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