ISO 50001 is a standard that defines the requirements for planning, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an energy management system (EnMS). The method allows the company to systematically document, assess, audit, analyze, and optimize the performance of the energy management system while providing specific metrics such as energy efficiency, energy consumption, and energy usage.
An energy management system is the result of a successfully implemented ISO 50001 standard. Energy management, in simple terms, refers to everything that goes into the coordination of energy production and use. The requirements cover a wide range of detail for everything related to energy management systems, from the procedures and policies used within the system to the monitoring and documentation of energy efficiency to the design and purchase of equipment, processes, and personnel involved with the energy management system.
At the energy management planning stage, identifying relevant applicable issues and their associated risks and opportunities is part of the strategic decision-making process (see Figure 6). As a result, the Organization can foresee potential scenarios and repercussions and prevent or limit negative consequences before they occur. Similarly, beneficial criteria can be recognized and promoted which can bring potential benefits and positive results.
The Organization, with the immersion of Regulatory Bodies (if necessary), can measure potential risks and opportunities and plan actions. The risk and opportunity assessment process is not specifically addressed in the ISO 50001 standard. It is possible to do qualitative, quantitative, or mixed risk assessments based on factors like SWOT analysis, issue management matrix, historical data analysis, stakeholder conversations, and cost estimates for the most critical risks, for example. The municipal energy policy must be compatible with the identified risks and possibilities.
Similarly, the activities could contain the ISO 50001 auditor training for employees to improve knowledge about regulator use and efficient space ventilation, checking and/or providing the qualifications of personnel responsible for operating the equipment, the energy efficiency service contract, conducting energy audits, etc.
Because risk-based thinking aligns so well with risk management, the ISO 50001 standard does not require any type of risk assessment or the maintenance of a Risk Register. ISO's risk-based thinking requirements focus on incorporating risk into decision-making without formalizing how to do so—perhaps through a SWOT analysis or an Issue Management Matrix, for example.
It's most likely because the organization wants to provide businesses from different industries more flexibility in how they meet the standards. Others would argue that adding formal requirements for risk management approaches to certification was simply too much of a step. In either case, businesses need a mechanism to include risk in their ISO 50001 EnMS, and several technological tools can help them do so.
Organizations can mitigate the risk using technology:
One of the most significant aspects of incorporating risk-based thinking into your Energy management process is to make it a processing element rather than a separate task. From a technological perspective, this involves incorporating risk management capabilities within the EnMS rather than relying on a separate point solution or time-consuming manual procedures. The risk-enabled Matrix's key capabilities include:
- Risk Register: Individual concerns and risk items must be recorded and monitored in a centralized location. Although the ISO 50001 standard does not formally demand the construction and maintenance of a Risk Register, if the organization keeps something along the lines of this matrix/log/record/evidence, it will undoubtedly aid in the identification and implementation of various requirements. This risk register will include the identification of both hazards and opportunities. All core and support procedures must be included and covered in the ISO 50001 documents when creating a system according to ISO 50001.
- Risk tools: Risk assessment tools, such as a risk matrix or decision tree, should be included within any EnMS, from audits to deviations to regulatory compliance tracking.
- Risk-based Verification and Validation: Identification of operational controls (in whatever form—whether mitigation steps, contingency actions, or strategic activities in the case of opportunities) and risk assessment (sometimes also called finding the Residual Risk). If the organization also incorporates a risk-based final verification/validation/check step for stages such as Identification and implementation of corrective actions, it would considerably aid in the entire system's Energy Management performance assessment/evaluation and improvement modules.
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