[28/01/2016]
Why Your Building Need Energy Managers?
Now
Hiring: Energy Managers
BSEEP
is working on an Energy Management Guideline for building owners and operators but
the question is, are they ready to commit to it?
Malaysia has a
target of reducing 40% of CO2 emission by 2020. This has been pledged by our
Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak at the Conference of Parties (COP15) in
2009. One of the strategies for us to achieve the target is by having an
efficient energy management system for our buildings as
the building industry has a much higher potential to reduce CO2 emission
compared to the transportation and industrial scene.
A
proper energy management system existed in Japan even
before World War 2 with the implementation of Heat Management Regulations in
1947. As for Malaysia,
which is still under intermediate level in energy management, we have set regulations, namely, Efficient Management of Electrical
Energy Regulations 2008 (EMEER 2008) with a minimum
requirement for affected facilities to engage registered electrical energy
managers and submit scheduled reports on their energy management activities
which has been enforced by
the Energy Commission since 2008. At present there are approximately 2000 large electrical energy users
affected by the regulations and they used more
than 3 million kilowatt hours of electrical energy for 6 consecutive months
since its inception on 15 December 2008 and have set ISO 50001 for our energy
management benchmark.
As a measure to ensure more effective development and
implementation of energy management programs for
organizations in the building sector, BSEEP will develop an Energy Management Guidelines (EMG) for
building owners and operators to improve the building’senergy operations in managing their energy resources andat the same time reduce carbon emission. EMGwill be developed with the integration of key elements of energy management system
(EMS) requirements with ISO50001:2011 standard system
adopted worldwide and in Malaysia.
Commitment of the Decision
and Policy Makers
Top
to bottom! That is the typical approach which often works when it comes to effective management system development and
implementation. The commitment from the top management group who decides on
policy and has authority to determine direction,
finance and resources have been identified as
the key factor for a successful energy management program in many international
and local organizations.
We could have the best EMG in the world but it can be wasted
due to lack of acceptance and commitment from the building owners’ or operators’
top management. They must be prepared to formulate and establish policies and
objectives of their own energy management system to provide an understanding of
the organization’s energy management goals to the occupants or employees.
Once a firm direction is in place, an Energy Management
Committee (EMC) must be formed to ensure all the energy management practices
are executed as planned.
Appointment and
roles Energy Managers
For the energy management system to be successful, EMC for the
building must have a designated energy manager or a responsible person to
oversee the overall implementation of energy management system. Buildings that are
affected by EMEER 2008 will have to engage a Registered Electrical Energy
Manager (REEM). As for smaller energy users, the decision makers will have to
consider the need to appoint either consultants, contractors or their employee
to be their energy manager to assist them in managing their energy resources
and achieving their energy management goals. Decision makers will determine the
number of buildings or sections under the care of each energy manager, based on
its organizational structure and the building’s energy operations. They will
need to evaluate the building’s existing criteria prior to the appointment of
the energy manager.
Steve Jobs once quoted – "hiring the best is your most
important task”. Take note, decision makers, because selecting the right energy
manager is essential and could be a major challenge for you. Not only you have
to be prepared to train the suitable candidate or appoint an individual who is
experienced in energy management but also selecting someone suitable for the
role, especially, if it is one of your employees. Energy manager’s
responsibilities include, but are not limited to;
Ø Plan, regulate and monitor electricity and
energy consumption in the building.
Ø Propose strategies and planning
to improve energy efficiency.
Ø Evaluate the best policy to be implemented
and necessary changes to adapt.
Ø Encourage the usage of sustainable energy
resources within buildings.
Ø Derive solutions for carbon management.
Ø Raise the profile of energy conservation.
Ø Manage subsequent project implementation.
Ø Implement energy conversation practice to
reduce the cost of energy and prevent pollution.
Ø Schedule equipment service and modification
for a better efficiency.
Ø Identify, design and implement
no-cost/low-cost.
Ø Provide training and talks for
occupants or employees awareness.
Ø Work on site to ensure the energy efficient
objectives are met.
Once
the appointed energy managers understand their role and responsibilities, a flexible
system of accountability is necessary to ensure compliance. Decision makers
will need to create a register for use as identifiers for their energy managers
that are regularly updated. The
registers are important to;
Ø The building occupants or employees to
address related issues.
Ø Achieve the accountability while
maintaining the privacy of the building’s employee or facility maintenance
contractor.
Ø Determine the number of buildings for which
an energy manager has been assigned and confirming
that the building has an energy manager.
Ø To be used as the user identification for
logging in to the web-based energy management system
and entering data pertaining to the buildings.
This is essential as to whether their energy management
system perform effectively. One of the elements in EMG will highlight a Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with
incentives to ensure the effectiveness of energy manager’s role and to gain
full cooperation of the occupants or employees. As an example,initiative like a detailed report of the building’senergy evaluation must be done annually and an annual
electrical saving must be set as part of the KPIs based on a certain year baseline and expected to be improved for the
following years. Incentives are totally up to the building’s
owner; whichever that could motivate the energy managers to perform and
occupants or employees to participate in reaching the goals.
At present there are over 500 qualified REEMs registered with
Energy Commission and about 900 facilities out of about 2000 facilities
affected by EMEER 2008 have appointed REEMs to comply with the legal
requirements. This has indicated that these companies are not only looking at the
legal compliance in the engagement of energy managers but beyond that.
The
role of energy managers is being recognized as one of the key success factors
for sustainable energy management practices in organizations. With the growing interests toward cost-effective business approaches in
utilizing energy resources beyond electrical energy, it would be realistic to
expect more demand for competent energy managers in thefuture in the building sector.
With a more defined policy in Malaysia formanaging energy resources, more energy managers are expected to be in demand in different segments
of management activities and levels for most organizations either in government
or private sectors.
The challenges for energy managers today is to gain
experience and be skilled in their field despite the lack of support for the
growth and acceptance of services offered in the energy efficiency industry due
to the current environment and economic climate.
Finally, it is expected that the requirements to be an energy
manager is to be specific with different types of competency needed to meet the
needs for different market segments in the future. With the upcoming ASEAN
economic community market to be in place, more opportunities are also expected
to be available for explore in this region for knowledge-based services such as
what could be offered by energy managers beyond the building sector itself.