Energy management systems are an essential tool for reducing the energy use and associated costs and carbon emissions of organisations and businesses.

 

Standards for energy management seek to support the EU’s targets for improving energy efficiency, reducing emissions and raising the share of renewable energy by 20% respectively by 2020.

 

In order to meet these targets, the EU has adopted a number pieces of legislation regarding energy management, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, e.g. Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency, Directive 2010/31/EU on energy performance of buildings, the Eco-design Directive (2009/125/EC) and the Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC).

 

Standards development aims to coordinate and promote consistency between on-going European standardisation activities concerning energy management and energy efficiency. It also covers renewable energy development such as marine energy, in line with European Commission communication COM (2014) 8 of January 2014 energy on ‘Blue Energy’, and hydrogen technologies, with challenging roles in energy storage strategies, optimised use of intermittent renewable energy production, natural gas, etc.