Energy diagnosis fulfilment for enterprises

The legislative decree issued on 19th July of last year, acknowledges the European directive 2012/27/UE which defines a number of measures for the promotion and the improvement of the energy efficiency aimed at reducing the energy final consumption on national territory (20% by 2020 the use of primary energy).

In order achieve this goal, this decree introduces a corpus of measures and identifies some tools like the Energy Diagnosis and the Energy Management Systems. The Energy Diagnosis, defined for the first time in Italy by D.Lgs 115/2008, is a systematic procedure capable of supplying a proper knowledge of the energy meter of a building or group of buildings of a business or industrial plant or public/private services and then identify and quantify the opportunities of energy saving according to a cost-benefit analysis. The purpose of the Energy Diagnosis is that of providing a description of the energy system of an Organization and then highlighting the possible interventions to improve efficiency and work out the actual saving.

The D.Lgs 102/2014 makes obligatory the implementation of the Energy Diagnosis every four years for a number of subjects:

• large companies: enterprises employing over 250 staff whose yearly turnover is more than 50 million € or whose total annual balance sheet is over 43 million €

• energy-consuming businesses: manufacturing firms consuming more than 2.4 GWh a year and whose energy cost accounts for at least 3% on the yearly turnover (art. 39, comma 1, D.lgs. 83/2012)

The obligation imposed by this decree, besides the fulfilment of the Energy Diagnosis, also comprises the implementation of the interventions for efficiency following their actual spotting. The alternative is that you can choose to adopt energy management systems with ISO 50001 certification.

Large enterprises that have adopted management systems in compliance with EMAS and ISO 50001 or EN ISO 14001 regulations, provided that they include an energy audit carried out pursuing to attachment 2 of D.Lgs. 102/2014 and small and medium enterprises. Although small and medium enterprises are exonerated, according to this decree they can get incentives for the implementation of energy diagnosis and for the adoption of energy management systems as well as ISO 50001 certifications through the publication of a specific notice from MiSE.

For the fulfilment of the obligation, the Energy Diagnosis must be:

• in compliance with attachment 2 of D.Lgs 102/2014 and with ENEA guidelines, whose publication is forthcoming

• carried out by qualified people: Società di Servizi Energetici (ESCo) qualified UNI 11352, Experts in Energy Management (EGE) qualified UNI 11339 and energy auditors (insiders or outsiders). For all these subjects the ACCREDIA guidelines are in preparation. They will define the certification and qualification criteria

ISO 50001 regulation

The structure of this regulation, like any other regulation regarding managing systems, is based on the Deming cycle (continuous improvement) and on the “plan-do-check-act” approach (planning, programme implementation, test and control, action). This facilitates a possible integration with the other managing systems that have already been implemented by the organization. Therefore the aim is that of planning and acting in accordance with the mutual needs and targets. In order to efficiently face the energy issues, you have to work out and evaluate the principal critical situations and then define which are the best operational choices to manage them. After having implemented the solutions to solve these energy problems, you should judge the efficiency of these methods and identify any possible weak points.

Finally, the planning cycle re-starts with other issues to sort out and new objectives to reach.

The system is based on a few fundamental principles:

• a clear, well-defined energy policy with definite programmes, objectives, targets and resources
• full respect of legislative obligations
• knowledge of the most substantial energy use and consumption
• continuous upgrading of energy usage
• staff Training
• record of the actions carried out to reach objectives and the operational control
• paper record

A voluntary approach to this regulation helps the organizations to set which and how many objectives are to be reached and in how much time. In doing this, costs will be cut and the environment will be improved.

The objectives

The UNI CEI EN ISO 50001 regulation “Energy Management Systems – requirements and guidelines for a correct use” aims at supporting the organizations in their purchasing and management phase, as well as in the proper use of energy resources. It represents a useful complementary tool of UNI EN ISO 9001concerning quality managing systems and of UNI EN ISO 14001 concerning environmental management. It introduces a systematic procedure aimed at saving energy. This is the true objective of a regulation that helps to define a “System of Energy Management” (SGE). To sum up, ISO 50001 helps public and private organizations of any type and size, to organize systems and processes finalized at improving the efficiency of energy use and consumption: a kind of management that leads not only to economical benefits, but also to advantages for the environment because of the reduction of greenhouse gases.

The target

ISO 50001 applies to all the companies that want to:

• improve their own energy performances and cut costs through a systematic energy management
• organize, develop, maintain and upgrade an energy management system in compliance with the energy policies agreed upon
• sensitise their users/staff/clients/citizens on a responsible use of energy resource
• reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• boost the organization policy on environmental sustainability and eco-friendly behaviour
• obtain the certification of their SGE from a third part Body or Institution