New ISO 50001 Standards on energy management systems

Dr. Lalith Senaweera, Director General Sri Lanka standards institution

Economical energy is the life blood of modern civilizations. The world’s 85 percent of energy is supplied using oil, coal and natural gas. However it has been observed that these resources available on earth are of diminishing nature and it is getting depleted very fast with time as use is increasing exponentially due to the increase of population and the development of economies in the world.

For example, developing countries need to expand its industrial base like Sri Lanka, if it has to improve the quality of life of its people.

The expansion of industrial base does require additional energy inputs which become more and more difficult in the present scenario. This is an issue currently faced by the world.

For instance, the estimated available values of the above resources are as follows;

Moreover, there are some resources, which are renewable like solar power, wind power and geothermal power. In order to ensure the utilization of said resources, technology is also being developed to generate power. It is an accepted fact that the capital investment requirement for introducing the above alternative resources to generate energy is very high as compared to normally available above-mentioned resources. With the available current technology, it may be possible to generate around 5 percent of total power generation as on date.

Therefore it is important to control the use or restrict the use of energy generates through the available resources.

The above indicates that the world is moving towards a severe energy crisis, with an ever increasing demand of energy overstepping its supply.

Energy Scenario of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka mainly generates energy using hydro power and considering the increasing demand for energy and to provide an uninterrupted service whilst catering to the increasing demand the government invested for a coal power plant and commissioned it recently.

The current energy position of Sri Lanka covering the consumption is as follows:

From the above it is very clear that in Sri Lanka a high percentage (98 percent) of consumption comes from industry and commercial establishments and domestic users.

Moreover, by introducing demand side management activities, in Sri Lanka it is expected to control and reduce energy consumption by 20 percent in 2020 considering year 2010 as the baseline.

If carefully analyzed the above data, indicates to us that it is very necessary to consider the domestic usage of energy in Sri Lanka whilst giving utmost attention to the industry and commercial sector.

In this context, we have a responsibility to use energy without wasting it unnecessarily, if we want to save the world including our country from the energy crisis.

Therefore, it is our responsibility to take adequate precautions at our end to deal with a possible energy crisis. However, this requires to do lot of activities including a ground based training and awareness programme to educate the public about the use of energy and energy efficient equipment. With regards to industry and commercial sector, it is widely accepted all over the world that there should be a sound mechanism to save and manage energy.

Evolution of energy management systems

Considering the importance of managing energy, many countries started to develop requirement based standards on energy management so that any interested party can use those standards to manage energy whilst contributing to overcome the energy crisis.

As a result, in the year 2000, USA gave the lead role in introducing the first Energy Management System standard as ANSI/MSE 2000: 2000.

The following table shows the other countries which have taken steps to introduce Energy Management System Standards. The use of these standards helps to cut down the waste of available energy whilst minimizing the use of oil, gas, electricity, or any other fuel.

Moreover, implementation of these standards has helped to spread awareness about limited availability of energy resources. The European energy management system standard, EN 16001,was published in 2009.

The EN 16001 standard helps organizations to establish the systems and processes necessary to improve energy efficiency, with a particular focus on the analysis of energy usage data. This should lead to reductions in cost and greenhouse gas emissions through systematic management of energy.

These standards have been widely used and implemented by the industry and commercial establishments of those countries and achieve substantial results.

ISO 50001 Standards on Energy Management System

Considering the background of rising world energy prices and climate change issues, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) entered into the scene to develop an International Standard on Energy Management Systems.

ISO has a membership of 163 national standards bodies from countries large and small, industrialized, developing and in transition, in all regions of the world.

Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) represents Sri Lanka at ISO as the member body. ISO standards make a positive contribution to the world we live in. They facilitate trade, spread knowledge, disseminate innovative advances in technology and share good management and conformity assessment practices.

An ISO International Standard represents a global consensus on the state-of-the-art in the subject of that standard.

The secretariat of ISO/PC 242 is provided by the partnership of the ISO members for the United States (American National Standards Institute - ANSI) and Brazil (Associa‡ao Brasileira de Normas T‚cnicas - ABNT). Forty-three ISO member countries are participating in its development, with another 12 as observers. Liaison organizations include the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the World Energy Council (WEC).

ISO 50001- Energy Management Systems - Requirements with guidance for use, was published in June 2011. ISO 15001 establishes a framework for industrial plants, commercial facilities, or entire organizations to manage energy. According to ISO, the standard could influence up to 60 percent of the world’s energy use,with broad applicability across national economic sectors.

The purpose of ISO 50001 standard is to enable organizations to establish the systems and processes necessary to improve energy performance, including energy efficiency, use and consumption.

It is also expected that implementation of this standard is intended to lead to reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other related environmental impacts and energy costs through systematic management of energy.

The standard is applicable to all types and sizes of organizations, irrespective of geographical, cultural or social conditions. This standard was also developed using the same principle of Plan - Do - Check - Act (PDCA) continual improvement framework and therefore it is very easy to incorporate this standard requirements with the ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 management system requirements as such systems are also developed using the same framework.

Role of Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI)

Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) being the national standards body of Sri Lanka and the member body of ISO has every right to adopt this standard as a national standard as the implementation of this standard within the country has a tremendous impact for our economy.

SLSI therefore has already initiated action to adopt this international standard and plan out a series of steps to promote this standard throughout the country with the support of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA).

Since international standard can be used for certification and self- declaration of an organization’s Energy Management System (EnMS), SLSI has initiated actions to develop a certification scheme to certify organizations against this standard and intends to carry out this scheme in association with SLSEA.

Certification to ISO 50001

It is pre requisite to have a well documented system as per the ISO 50001 standard requirements within an organization to proceed with certification. When documenting the system, it is necessary to consider all processes related to energy must be documented.

It is necessary to document the reasons for implementing a certain measure, as well as which energy aspects (technology, organization or behaviour) and activities in the daily work routine are affected by a certain procedure. The simpler the documents are maintained, the easier it is to implement the EnMS. Also, keeping your documents up to date enables you to monitor and measure your EnMS more easily.

It is also necessary to conduct number of internal audits to ascertain the sound implementation of the system within the organization and once the organization is satisfied with the implementation, then the organization can select the certification body.

Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) has a wealth of experience in certifying management systems as it has certified over 500 organizations in Sri Lanka and overseas on different management systems such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 22000 and therefore the organizations that select SLSI can obtain a value added service to achieve better results whilst contributing to improve national economy.

Benefits of an ISO 50001 Certification

Some of the benefits that an organization can gain by obtaining ISO 50001 Certification are as follows;

* Reduce energy cost and save money by increasing profitability of the organization.

* Efficient Energy Management system would help to reduce the impact of GHG gases leading to environmental protection.

* Efficient Energy Management system would help to utilize the resources efficiently contributing to sustainable development.

* Organization can credibly show to the public that it is operating sensibly with respect to energy-efficiency and thus contributing to protect the environment.