Energy management draft ISO standard open for comment

A project committee established by the International Organization for Standardization has issued a new draft standard (ISO 50001) on energy management systems for review and comment.

By David Greenfield July 10, 2009

ISO 50001, currently being developed by project committee 242 (Energy Management), will provide energy management systems guidelines for industrial plants, commercial facilities, and entire organizations. The document will be based on the common elements found in all of ISO’s management system standards, to assure a high level of compatibility with ISO 9001, quality management systems, and ISO 14001 for environmental management systems.

This review and comment period is an important phase in the development of an international standard during which each national standards body registered as a member of the ISO activity establishes its position concerning whether to proceed with development of the standard. Though practices differ slightly from country to country, most nations have a national mirror committee of subject matter experts that develop the national consensus position. In the United States, these committees are known as Technical Advisory Groups.

As the U.S. member body of ISO, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has accredited the Georgia Tech Energy & Environmental Management Center as administrator of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO committee 242. In this capacity, Georgia Tech staff provides administrative facilitation for all aspects of the group’s work.

Interested U.S. parties are encouraged to obtain and review the draft standard and to develop their input for consideration by the full group. To obtain a copy of the draft standard, contact Deann Desai at deann.desai@gatech.edu .

The U.S. Technical Advisory Group will meet in Kansas City, MO, on August 5-6, 2009, for the purpose of finalizing the U.S. position on the committee draft ballot.

See these other Control Engineering articles related to ISO standards:

Review today’s machinery safety standards
Integrated Safety and Motion
More network standards: LonWorks gains ISO/IEC recognition

 

– Edited by David Greenfield , editorial director
Control Engineering Sustainable Engineering News Desk