ISO 50001 to control or reduce your bills

The ISO 50001 standard, based on the PDCA model, helps companies reduce their energy consumption and costs. It also offers an energy audit exemption for large companies.

Marie Faucon
EHS Consultant
Update : 
12.09.2025
Publication: 
07.09.2015
Contents
Example H2
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The benefits of implementing an EMS in line with ISO 50001 are manifold.

For example:

  • Reducing energy costs
  • Improving profitability and competitiveness
  • Reducing the company's vulnerability to changes in the energy market, and securing its supplies
  • Enhanced ability to anticipate future regulatory constraints relating to energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
  • The possibility for large and mid-sized companies to be exempted from energy audits every 4 years (this provision does not apply to SMEs with fewer than 250 employees and/or annual sales not exceeding €50 million or annual balance sheet total not exceeding €43 million).
  • Contributing to environmental protection

Last but not least, from a financial point of view, energy-saving operations carried out within the scope of ISO 50001 certification give rise to the issue of subsidized CEE for energy suppliers (distributors of electricity, gas, heating/cooling, domestic heating oil or fuels), who are required to achieve or have their customers achieve a minimum volume of energy savings, failing which they will be subject to financial penalties.

So, by helping ISO 50001-certified companies to implement energy-saving measures at their industrial sites or tertiary buildings, the energy supplier benefits from a bonus on the amount of CEE corresponding to the kWh saved. As a result, its contribution to the financing and implementation of the project is obviously increased.

ISO 50001 at a glance

The ISO 50001 standard defines a framework and guidelines for implementing an energy management system based on the PDCA continuous improvement model (Plan - Do - Check - Act => Plan - Do - Check - Act/Improve). PDCA is already applied in quality management systems (ISO 9001), environmental management systems (ISO 14001) and occupational health and safety management systems (OHSAS 18001 and future ISO45001).

To sum up, on the basis of an initial energy review and the applicable legal requirements, the company must define its reference consumption and significant energy uses, establish objectives and targets broken down into action plans, and then monitor the evolution of its performance using indicators and an energy measurement plan.

ISO 50001 can be implemented on its own, or integrated with other management systems already in place.

ISO 50001, the specifics

The structure of ISO 50001 is comparable to that of ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001. However, ISO 50001 has a number of notable specificities:

  • Management's commitment to implementing the EMS is further described in a dedicated chapter (4.2.1).
  • Design activities for installations, equipment or processes that may have a significant impact on energy performance must be taken into account in the EMS (Chapter 4.5.6), which is not required by ISO 14001.
  • A specific chapter (4.5.7) is dedicated to energy-related purchasing operations. In particular, it requires the definition of energy purchasing specifications and the establishment of energy evaluation criteria for the purchase of certain energy-consuming products, equipment or services.
  • The ISO 50001 standard is based on results, not just means. It therefore requires energy performance trends to be compared with the baseline consumption established in the initial energy review (Chapters 4.4.4 and 4.4.5). In addition, methods for verifying the results of action plans and their impact in terms of improving energy performance must be described (chapter 4.4.6).

What about energy regulation monitoring?

In the same way as ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001, ISO 50001 requires the implementation of a specific regulatory watch enabling :

  • identify and implement legal requirements relating to the EMS (§ 4.4.2)
  • to assess its compliance with these legal requirements (§ 4.6.2).

The energy regulatory watch carried out under the ISO 50001 standard should enable the company to identify and monitor changes in any regulations relating to its "energy uses" (e.g. ventilation, lighting, heating, cooling, production processes, etc.), its "energy consumption" (= quantity of energy used) or its "energy efficiency" (= ratio of results to energy input).

Companies carrying out an environmental regulatory watch as part of an ISO14001 EMS are already carrying out part of their energy regulatory watch, thanks to the overlap between the scope of their activities (regulations concerning greenhouse gas emissions, boilers and air-conditioning systems, sources of light pollution, or ICPE headings linked to energy production/consumption activities).

To a lesser extent, the same applies to the regulatory safety watch that can be carried out within the framework of OHSAS18001. Examples: articles of the French Labor Code imposing constraints on lighting or ventilation of work premises, decrees and orders relating to compressed air and steam, and, more generally, texts concerning pressurized equipment.

To sum up, from a methodological point of view, theorganization of a regulatory watch underISO 50001 is no different from that which can be carried out under ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001.

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