Energy management practices in office buildings development of an energy management system for a small medium enterprise.

Abstract

Energy Management constitutes one of the main areas of sustainable energy practices. Especially in the building sector, energy management constitutes a significant operation which may assist an organization, in this case a small medium enterprise to reduce the required resources, financial and natural in order to achieve energy performance. A series of directives and standards, have been developed concerning the procurement of energy audits and energy management of the built environment. A main tool for the energy performance of the built environment is the energy management system (EnMS). The system is a systematic process for continual improvement in energy performance that maximizes energy savings of the organization. The main characteristic is to engage and encourage personnel at all levels of an organization to manage energy use on an everyday basis and it involves all levels and functions of the organization and requires the commitment of top management. The purpose of the study is to implement energy performance guidelines on a small medium enterprise through an energy management system (EnMS) based on the ISO50001:2018. To serve the above, an energy policy of the organization was formulated, a detailed energy consumption analysis was conducted of past and present use, significant energy uses were identified and an energy baseline was constructed. Also a fully developed energy plan manual and an energy management system procedure manual are created. The objectives and targets of the organization were identified and agreed among the management. It is also noted, in order for informed decisions to be taken and to choose fit for purpose energy efficiency measures and furthermore to formulate the suitable action plans a synoptic energy audit of the small medium enterprise was conducted. Lastly, conclusions are drawn regarding the implementation of the energy efficiency measures and the energy management system by small medium enterprises.