ISO 50001 versus Superior Energy Performance: Making Sense of Each for your Situation

Abstract

For years, utilities and governmental agencies industrial facility energy efficiency programs have been challenged by facility staff working around optimized equipment as well as completed measures not performing as planned, persisting as long as planned, or producing repeat projects. Strategic Energy Management (SEM) has been a growing response to these challenges, where the project approach to energy savings is replaced with a lasting facility energy management programs that produce business cultures that proactively drive projects, that make staff aware of the importance of energy efficiency, and that wraps all of this into an effort that corporate leaders can support. The most significant SEM developments of the last few years have centered in the ISO 50001 energy management system international standard as well as in the ISOrelated, US Department of Energy-developed Superior Energy Performance (SEP) program. For the past several years, EnerNOC, NRDC and SES have contributed to the creation of the ISO 50001 energy management system standard. In addition, our teams have worked with the SEP pilots, and have directly supported and interacted with industrial energy managers as they have applied these tools to their facilities. This paper will provide a brief overview of what is common and distinct between ISO and SEP, including what elements are important to both facility and corporate energy managers. This paper will also put forth core information as well as essential usage guidelines for utility and government program managers who are considering leveraging ISO and SEP to support their efforts. Finally, this paper will suggest additional areas to further develop to ease ISO and SEP integration into programs and achieve maximum energy performance results.