Energy Data Management for the “ISO 50001 Mind-set”

ISO 50001 follows the Deming cycle (PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT) to help organizations plan,

implement, maintain and improve an Energy Management System (EnMS). For large energy

using organisations, energy data is most often managed in an Energy Management

Information System (EMIS). In a previous article “EnMS and EMIS: What’s the Difference? ”, in

Energy Manager Today, Dr. Paul Monaghan and I described the outputs of an EMIS and the

benefits that those outputs bring to a complete EnMS.

In this short article we primarily focus on “Energy Planning” and the key steps necessary to

allow for correct checking of energy performance. The EMIS outputs can again be utilized,

but we will focus on what outputs to use and how to use them?

Working with a customer a few weeks back, I had asked them to identify their significant

energy uses (SEUs). I had also asked the customer in parallel to consider what energy

metering data they wanted to assess.

When I received the list of SEUs and the list of meters, there was no obvious link between

them. This surprised me, because the customer had detailed metering data for their whole

site, knew from experience what their SEUs were, but still the meters did not match up to their

SEUs!

I asked the customer to think “What do I want to achieve from the data that I am

collecting?” I wanted them to realise that they needed the energy data to check Energy

performance monitoring to help their organization to set realistic and achievable objectives

and targets.

They believed their organization possessed all of the metering data they could ever need.

This is a great starting point, but I explained that, we “needed to start by reverse engineering

i.e. from the top down!” – the “ISO 50001 mind-set”.

So, I went about explaining energy data management for ISO 50001. After a few minutes the

customer had a Eureka moment and stopped me, saying – “I get it! This is thinking on a

higher level”.

The figure below describes the 6 key steps that I told the customer to consider, along with

what questions to ask at each step and some example answers to those questions.

1. Identify SEUs

•What are my energy uses?

•What are my significant energy uses?

2. Understand the Energy

Drivers

•What are the relevant variables affecting their energy use?

•Understand how to control them?

3. Establish the Energy

Baseline

•What type of energy and how much energy do they use?

•What should/can I meter?

4. Decide on relevant EnPIs

•What performance indicators (considering the energy drivers) will help to monitor the performance of each SEU?

5. Benchmark

•What is my benchmark?

•What are best practice or guideline figures?

•What do my colleagues in other sites achieve?

6. Set Objectives and

Targets

•Based on my benchmarking, what are my targets for the upcoming period?

Below are examples associated with each Step:

1. SEUs: Production Lines, Lighting, HVAC, Compressed Air, Boilers (i.e., energy uses offering

the most potential for energy efficiency; processes; plant, equipment, fixtures, fittings;

buildings and building services; raw materials; water use (energy associated); other

services, such as transport).

2. Energy Drivers: Production Units, Occupancy, Floor Area, Degree Days. (i.e. relevant

variables affecting energy use)

3. Energy Baseline: Electrical (MWhs) Production line meter, Electrical (kWhs) Lighting meter,

Electrical (MWhs) HVAC meter, Natural Gas (MMBtu) Boiler meter. (i.e. direct metering of

SEUs or grouped metering of similar energy use; processes plant, equipment, fixtures, etc.)

4. EnPIs: Electrical (MWh) / Production Quantities, Electrical (kWhs) Lighting / Occupancy ,

Electrical (MWhs) HVAC / Degree Days, Natural Gas (MMBtu) Boiler / Production units,

Total MWh/m2 floor area. (i.e. EnPIs that directly assist in monitoring targets)

5. Benchmarking: should establish the baseline energy use for each SEU identified in terms

of EnPIs, benchmark my EnPI values against best practice EnPIs for similar processes, and

benchmark my EnPI values against those of my colleagues in other sites.

6. Objectives & Targets: Set your targets relative to the Benchmark and best practice

guidelines, this may also be tied to corporate targets or legal requirements.(Remember if

you don’t know where you want to get to, you won’t know when you’re there!)

Explaining this process brought the customer to consider the “higher level of thinking”.

Bottom line: The customer had plenty of the metering data but needed to integrate this data

into an energy management system following Energy Planning – (Steps 1-6 and the “ISO

50001 mind-set”), to set realistic and achievable objectives and targets.

Author: Mark McCaffrey Energy Engineer, Enerit Ltd

*****

Note* This article was also published on the online Magazine Energy Manager Today. You

can view this article here.

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