ISO 50001 Energy Management

International community is moving forward on Energy Efficiency. Right now there is already a draft of ISO 50001 which standardize Energy Management. Energy management is an essential component of efforts to increase the efficiency of energy usage. It is an essential part because energy efficiency and conservation needs clear plan, strategies, and target to achieve. Energy, in a production process, is an important part that affects the cost of production therefore managing energy usage wisely and methodically will lead to reduced cost of production and eventually increase the competitiveness of the product and also the company.

Indonesia will certainly adopt the standard. The head of Standardization Agency (BSN) has informed public that they are on the track of adopting the ISO standard. As soon as the international draft is approved and becoming operation ISO, Indonesian government will immediately adopt it.

There are some options of adaptation. First is full adaptation and only translation is needed. The second is slight changes and most of the ISO standard is included. This strategy needs longer time to finish. The last one is creating new national standard with the ISO standard as the reference. This last strategy takes longest time. BSN is likely to choose the fast track strategy, or 100% adopt the ISO. To my opinion, this strategy is the most appropriate one. Indonesia now is badly in a need of Energy Management standard to improve national competitiveness and also energy performance.

Hopefully many companies will in the future voluntarily apply the new ISO or new National Standard to improve their performance and competitiveness. Now there is a big need for energy managers.