FEATURED RESEARCH

ISO 50001-Energy Management Systems published

Win the energy challenge with ISO 50001
On June 15, 2011, the International Organization for Standardization published an important new energy standard. ISO 50001, Energy management systems - Requirements with guidance for use, can be used by any organization wishing to manage its energy use and consumption (ISO press release). Targeting broad applicability across national economic sectors, it is estimated that the standard could influence up to 60% of the world’s energy use. The standard was developed by the ISO project committee (PC) 242, Energy management, with the chairmanship held by the United States and Brazil. An LBNL researcher, Aimee McKane, had a central role in developing the standard, starting with an analysis of the existing national energy management standards for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in early 2007 and continuing as Vice-Chair to the US Technical Advisory Group to ISO PC 242.

ISO 50001 provides organizations with an internationally recognized framework for efficiently managing and improving their energy performance. ISO 50001 is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act approach to continual improvement that supports energy performance improvement over time based on the best data available to the organization. Continual improvement of energy performance requires a comprehensive energy management system involving a variety of stakeholders within an organization. The standard does not prescribe minimum performance criteria, energy reductions, or targets, however, many countries, including the United States, are developing programs to recognize organizations that achieve specified energy performance improvement targets.

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Verifying Energy Improvement in Industrial Facilities: Meeting the Challenge

'Verifying Energy Improvement in Industrial Facilities: Meeting the Challenge' at the 2011 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry

ACEEE logo
The 2011 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry was held in the Niagara Falls Conference Center in Niagara Falls, NY from July 26th to July 29th.  As part of the conference, a session titled Verifying Energy Improvement in Industrial Facilities: Meeting the Challenge was held on Wednesday, July 27th, at 1:30 P.M. The session facilitators were Aimee McKane (LBNL) and Mimi Goldberg, Ph.D. (KEMA).
A distinguished group of panelists discussed how to move measurement and verification of energy performance in industrial facilities from the current focus on discrete projects to a new approach to support continual improvement at the facility level.
Panelists:

The Measurement and Verification Protocol for the Superior Energy Performance Program can be found at the end of this article.
Panel Background:
The panelists will discuss how the Measurement and Verification (M&V) Protocol for the Superior Energy Performance (SEP) program is addressing this issue, and field experiences from its application.  The panelists will also explore alternative approaches for assessing facility-level improvements and accounting for external conditions. The traditional project based approach for measuring energy savings of an industrial facility is to apply M&V to discrete projects that typically involve capital expenditures.  These capital expenditures are the targets of incentives in common public-purpose programs. The project based approach fails to capture the full range of potential for energy efficiency actions, is inconsistent with the way facilities operate, does not adequately account for the impact of interactivity of capital and operational energy efficiency improvements, and provides no assurance that the verified energy savings will continue. A facility level approach provides a clearer picture of what is actually occurring in terms of the energy efficiency of an industrial plant. Facility improvement processes and decision-making are more aligned with systems and operational improvements.  In recent years, many efficiency program experts have begun to look for ways to promote and quantify improvements in systems rather than in “widgets,” particularly in the context of industrial energy use. However, a facility level approach also comes with a few challenges.  Energy savings can be difficult to quantify on a facility level since energy consumption can be affected by variables that are outside of the facility’s control, such as weather, production levels, and product mix. Normalization is typically required to determine if changes in energy consumption are a result of actions by the facility to improve energy performance or are due to these external conditions.


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