The U.S. Department of Energy hosted a webinar on June 6, 2019 to offer a preview to announce the 2019 launch and updates to the Superior Energy Performance 50001™ (SEP 50001™) program. The following transcript accompanies the webinar recording and slides. Learn more about SEP 50001™: www.energy.gov/SEP50001.
Transcription
Pamela: Hi and welcome everyone. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office is hosting this webinar to announce the launch of the 2019 version of the Superior Energy Performance 50001 Program. We’ll also be sharing details about the finalized program updates, and guidance for transitioning to the new version of the program.
Paul Scheihing from DOE and Deanne Desai from Georgia Tech will be presenting these updates, but before we begin, some announcements and housekeeping items will be helpful for us to make sure that we can hear the presentation. We will start recording this webinar after these instructions, with the intent of making the video available on the DOE website for later viewing.
All attendees are muted, and in listen-only mode, due to the large number of registrants. We will take questions after the presentation, at which time I will describe how you can submit your questions, or how you can indicate if you want to be unmuted to speak.
A copy of today’s slides will be sent to the email addresses that all attendees provided when registering, and I will now introduce Paul Scheihing of DOE to start the presentation, and the recording will start now.
Paul: Thank you Pamela, and thanks everyone for joining us today. We’re very excited about rolling out the Superior Performance 50001 2019 program. If we can go to the next slide, Pamela. Thank you.
So here’s our agenda today, and I’m going to describe a variety of things, especially some of the key features of how the SEP 50001 Program has changed, based on a lot of input we have received from industry and others, in terms of making the program more streamlined, and more valuable to industry. Next, please.
I think you went one – there we go. Okay. So the good news is, is 50001 is working. It’s yielding results, and I can safely say with the data we have, that it’s getting greater, more cost-effective, and more sustainable energy savings. That’s really the selling point of doing this, and we have the data to support it. The typical business-as-usual improvement, at least in the United States, is about 1%. Our industry leaders through the Better Plants Program, and Energy Star program, is around 2.5% per year. And through the SEP data of more than 60 sites over the years – we’re at about a 4.6% on average improvement. But even more importantly, that 4.6% per year improvement is coming at, with ¾ of the savings from no-cost, low-cost actions – non-capital, which makes it very, very cost-effective. It does take some extra effort on the front end, but once the effort is put in, you reap the benefits of the systematic approach.
And then you see some of the early adopters across North America to the standard. Next, please. So, many of you are probably aware that ISO 50001 has been revised in 2018. And the Department of Energy has created a transition guide. We did this in partnership with our TC301 mirror committee in the U.S., and it’s I think a very useful guide for those that already have the 50001 2011 standard in place. You can look at what do you have to do differently, in terms of upgrading to the 2018 standard. You don’t have to write down these website links, by the way – we’re going to send out a follow up email with all these links to, in this case, the transition guide and other tools and resources we have for you.
There’s also a training course if you want to take that, to learn about the changes. Many of you asked the question, well, when is the 50001 Navigator going to be modified to reflect the new standard? The answer is we are shooting for December of 2019, for the release of that. Our team is already well underway in making the modifications. There’s a lot of work to be done, but we’ve made our decisions and we’re moving forward. Next, please.
Another resource that just came out – this was done in partnership across North America, with our Mexican and Canadian colleagues, as well as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation – is this toolkit, or guide for supply chains, that’s how to effectively implement ISO 50001 between the original equipment manufacturer and its suppliers. I would encourage you folks to take a look at this – it really helps you to see how the case can be made for ISO 50001. There’s case studies within it, there’s tools within it, there’s an implementation approach suggested, so take a look at that. Next, please.
So, at DOE we have a multi-prong approach, or dual approach, encouraging our partners to adopt ISO 50001. First, there’s 50001 Ready, which is a self-declaration program, not certification, to the standard using the Navigator tool. Once you complete all the steps in Navigator – there’s 25 tasks within it – you can apply for DOE recognition that you are 50001 Ready. On the other side of the 50001 certification is a small amount of additional requirements you gotta do in addition to 50001, and that’s SEP 50001, which we’re going to talk about mostly today, which really involves the third party verification of the improvement.
So you see at the bottom there where we are with the number of facilities, and we’re up to 16 – I think we’re actually a little bit more – I think we’re over 20 facilities now with 50001 Ready, and 57 certified facilities with SEP. Okay. Next slide.
So, SEP is getting great results. It’s not untypical for many of the companies to have already saved over a million dollars. As I already mentioned, much of the savings is coming through non-capital investments, non-capital actions. And of course, the third-party verification is not only verifying the energy savings, to demonstrate the value the teams have achieved in the return on investments, but you’re also implicitly verifying your carbon emission reductions. So, you see some of the companies that are doing it. Okay. Next slide.
So, this slide basically, fundamentally describes SEP with the ISO management system – energy management system – plus the extra requirements, as defined through MSE 50000-28-1, with the – mainly through the verified improvement, plus a few additional requirements. It is an ANAB-accredited program, which means that ANAB takes on the responsibility of accrediting the SEP verification bodies. It’s quite an amount of effort that’s done by the verification body and ANAB to do that, including witness audits from time to time of ANAB witness auditors with the verification bodies. And Pamela is correcting the standard live there – it’s really an ANSI standard 50000-28-1. Okay, next slide there.
So, this is a snapshot of where we are. Of course, we’ve had the 2012 and 2017 programs available, and they will be available through the transition period. We have now launched the 2019 program, as of a week or so ago, and we have 57 active certifications, with several companies having multiple certifications. Some that have enterprises, which means they have an ISO 50001 enterprise system, and now with the 2019 program, they can add in the SEP as part of that enterprise, and the same approaches will be used in terms of efficiently managing across the enterprise. Next, please.
All right, so of course one of the key things of the new program is the name – we’ve added 50001 to SEP. This makes it align, of course, with the ISO standard, as well as the 50001 Ready program. This name applies to both the certification and the recognition. And as you can see, we have a new logo, as well as a new website and way to reach us. Next, please.
So, to summarize the key enhancements – one of the biggest things is this multi-site certification process, not only for the management system but also for the verification of the improvement, which we’ll talk about in a few slides, but you can sample both the management system and the verified improvement within the audits, which reduces your auditing costs. There’s also some greater flexibility – for example, if you happen to have a group of sites within your organization that are geographically close, but not contiguous – maybe there’s a manufacturing company that has a number of manufacturing sites within 10 or 20 miles from each other, or a school system, or a college campus that has several buildings and facilities that aren’t quite connected – you can treat that as one certification site. It gives greater flexibility.
Also, we have aligned with ISO 50001 in that the improvement for SEP has to be at least greater than zero. That gives the ability to diversify across other sectors that have not participated in the past. This one in particular was very strong input from energy intensives that have a difficulty in improving more than one or two percent per year, so again, you have to be greater than zero, and it gives you the ability to stay in the program, and continue that continuous improvement. And, [as] I already said consistent with ISO 50001.
We also added some flexibility in terms of how you can get the SEP certification – you can stay – you can keep your existing ISO 50001 CB and use [it] just for the SEP, or SEP verification body, or you can switch over to an SEP VB.
And finally, we took the scorecard out of the auditing process. You’ll get the silver, gold, platinum through a separate process independent of certification, which gives a lot of flexibility for the end user as well as DOE in terms of making sure the program can be changed as industry gives us feedback on areas to improve. Next, please.
All the documents are in one central location. Again, these website links will be emailed to you later. They’re kind of long and not easy to write down quickly. No worries, just wait for the email to come in a couple days. And then of course the key thing is the 2012 and 2017 will continue to be available. Let’s see, if I’m – I think we got one more slide. Next slide.
So, in terms of simplifying the certification process – again, to get SEP certified, get 50001 certified, and follow the small number of additional requirements spelled out in ANSI 50000-28-1, and improve greater than zero. With that certificate, you can – the VB will report to DOE that the company has achieved SEP and then they send us a report of how much they’ve improved, and the end user will have the option to get the silver, gold, platinum with us. You do have to have the certification to get to DOE recognition. Next, please.
So, the way that works is, with the certification you complete what’s called an SEP 50001 Scorecard Declaration, which is where you claim your scorecard points. It has to be signed off by a 50001 certified practitioner in EMS, to attest to the scorecard credits. You submit that to DOE, and depending on how many points you achieve, you’ll get silver, gold, platinum based on the 25, 50, and 75 points for silver, gold, platinum, respectively. And the scorecard, which you can download and read, will describe how you go about getting the credits. This is no longer a normative reference of the program, but it is used, as I said, for recognition.
Okay. I think we’re switching now, and on the next slide from me to Deanne Desai. Deanne?
Deanne: Thank you, Paul. So we’re going to talk a little bit about multi-site. So this means that you have more than one organization with a certificate. And so we’re going to have a central function, with an EnMS, and we’re going to do performance sampling, which means we’re not going to audit every single site. So, the central function could be at a specific location, or it could be at a separate facility altogether.
The facilities and the central function will be sampled when they’re audited. So this is a little bit different from the geographically co-located that Paul mentioned earlier, and that these sites do not have to be close together geographically. So they’re going to be away from each other, whereas in the geographically proximity facilities, they’re close together. And the examples before were things like a university campus, a hospital campus, school system. So, in a multi-site, these sites could be located in different states, as a simple example. Next slide, please.
So, we’re going to have our central function, we’re going to have our facilities, and we are going to sample these. That’s our carrot. So the carrot for multi-site sampling is that we don’t audit everybody. Because we’re not auditing every single location, there’s a little bit different way that we’re dealing with the energy performance improvement reports, or EPIR for short. So, the sites that the verification body goes to to audit, they – the performance verifier from the verification body will complete those energy performance improvement reports.
The sites that the verification body does not go to, and the sites that the verification body does go to, will have an energy performance improvement report completed by the organization’s SEP PV, or performance verifier. And those will be reviewed by the verification body performance verifier to ensure that they have been completed, that the F-tests, the R squared, the RF factors are appropriate for what is being presented in those reports. So, the organization will complete a report for all of the locations, and the PV from the verification body will complete one for the sites that they go to. Next slide, please.
Now, the way that this is sampled – we’re using the same sample protocols that are used for your ISO 50001 multi-site systems. So, for the initial certification it’s going to be the square root of the number of sites for surveillance. It’s – you can see the formulas there for you on the screen. It’s a little bit less. And then for re-certification, again we’re looking at the whole system.
Now, the other side of the coin is, if we do find non-conformities at a multi-site audit, it applies to all of the facilities within the multi-site. So, everybody has to respond. Next slide, please.
So, one of the key benefits of this is that we’re going to be using sampling for auditing, for both the management system and for the SEP requirements. This does mean that all sites are going to be on the same certification schedule, and we’ll talk a bit more about that shortly. For the initial certification and re-certification audits, as well as – which is when the SEP performance has to be demonstrated – you have a choice of your achievement period. You have a 12-month, a 24-month, or a 36-month achievement period that you can choose from. And this detail is found in the SEP M&V protocol.
If you do choose either the 12- or the 24-month achievement period, please remember that your data can’t be any more than 11 months old at the time of that initial or re-certification audit. But you do have choices now of that achievement period. And in addition, all of the sites within the multi-site – they do not have to choose the same achievement period, so you could have different achievement periods within a multi-site.
Each of those must have an SENPI value that’s greater than zero, as we’ve talked about earlier. Again, just to make sure everybody’s on the same page, each organization who’s doing multi-site will have an internal SEP PV. That could be someone within their organization, or it could be a contracted position, and that person will – that PV will complete the energy performance report, or EPIR, for each site under this multi-site certificate. That will be provided to the SEP PV for the verification body, for review during the assessments, and they will be forwarded to the program administrator by the organization, and then the SEP PV will forward it – the verification body will forward their energy performance reports to the program administrator as well.
The SEP will only submit reports for the sites they sample. The organization will submit sites for all the others. Next slide, please.
Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about what happens, and how do you get everybody on the same page? So, the graphic is just to tell you, it can be done. We’re going to talk a little bit about the details. So, you’ve got sites with all kinds of different dates on them – their certificates expire at different times. So the first thing that you’ll do is take a look at the various certificates, and choose the one with the earliest expiration date. So that’s going to be the certificate that we’re all going to align with. And that’s one of the reasons that having a choice in achievement periods is such a valuable option now, because you may be going for your certification a little bit earlier than you had originally planned. So now you have a choice for your achievement period to be 12 or 24 months, fitting in with that earlier audit timeframe that you’re now going to be using.
If you can keep your baseline period the same, and use a 12 or 24 month achievement period for this earlier audit, then you do not need to get SEP administrator approval. You can simply use that model and submit your EPIR as normal. Now, if you go and you try to get a model using this earlier time frame, and you’re having problems getting a valid model, and your best solution is to change your baseline period – you do need to re-baseline in order to get a valid model - then you must get SEP administrator approval, just as you normally would if you had a reason to re-baseline.
So you’ll get those approvals – those must be done in advance, so that it’s been approved, so everybody’s on the same page, and then again you’ll all be using that earlier time frame for your certificate. And so after that, everybody will have the same time frame for their certificates. We’ll talk about the time frame over which you have to do all of this transition, later on in the presentation. Now I believe we’re going to switch back to Paul. Next slide, please.
Paul: Thanks, Deanne. So, let’s go over the recognition again – there’s a little bit of what I already said, but it’s good to review it. So, you qualify for recognition if you have your certification – remember the verification body [‘s report] is sent to DOE, how much you’ve improved, that it’s used within the scorecard, for some of the credits. You have filled out the declaration, which is a spreadsheet claiming your credits, you’ve engaged a certified practitioner that will kind of review your credits, see if they’re appropriate – that person will sign off on it and submit the declaration to DOE.
Okay. Yes, so in terms of how the scorecard has changed, for those that are familiar with the old scorecard – or I should say, the 2012 and 2017 scorecard, again, it’s no longer part of the ANAB-accredited certification. We spent a lot of effort to make – let’s say, to fairly recognize the best practices of different sectors – sizes of facilities, and the length of time that an organization has participated in the program. We also added some flexibility. You can get credits for energy performance, and other credits, which I’ll go over in a second. And then in – specifically to the energy performance improvement – we did our best to fairly give credit to companies that would have a more of a challenge to improve than others. For example, the energy intensives have to make a lot of investment to even improve one percent, so there is some consideration of that, which sector you’re in, if you’ve made a lot of past improvement on your first certification. Let’s say if you’ve improved 20 percent in the last 10 years, well we give credit for that. If you improve 10 percent in an energy intensive, we give credit for that. That’s on the initial certification. If you’re Energy Star Certified, we give credit for that, and if you’re part of the Better Plants Program, credit for that. And then finally, if you’ve been certified more than once to SEP, there’s credit there.
Okay, so this kind of gives you a snapshot of the 128 possible points. So remember, to get platinum you had to get 75 points. So in a sense, it is 75 out of 128 to get to the platinum. We did do some testing of existing partners to see how they would do, and they at least got in the gold and many of them were in the platinum area. So we think we’ve positioned the point system fairly well. We’re going to see how it goes, in terms of how the initial adopters of this process come out, in terms of points.
The top part is the, you know, relates to the performance improvement. Up to 33 points there. And then the energy management system credits are similar, very similar to what existed in the other scorecards. We did modify a lot of them – added a few new ones in there. I would encourage you to go in and take a look. And then there’s a thing called certification partnership and reporting, where we’re – these are all new, where we’re giving credits to other types of certification, like Energy Star, LEED, etc. If your company reports to greenhouse gas reporting systems, like Carbon Disclosure Project, Dow Jones Sustainability Index, there’s credit for that.
If you, as a company, go out and promote 50001 to your suppliers or customers, credits for that. If you are involved in a utility program, or some other kind of third-party energy efficiency program, there’s credit for that. If you can demonstrate that your plan is superior through some type of industry benchmark system, there’s a credit. If you share your experience and data with us, we give points. Finally, the technological part – if you’re doing sub-metering, or have smart sensors and controls, or there’s kind of an open section for other advanced technologies where you can make the case that you’ve done something that’s more advanced or emerging. Then finally, the energy supply options – either combined heat and power, or on-site renewable. We give credit. Notice it’s on-site renewable – we don’t give credit for REC’s.
All right, let’s go to the next slide.
So, this is where I think this declaration process is really going to help improve the business value and user-friendliness of SEP in the market. You know, of course you will use a certified practitioner, but notice that practitioner could be internal. We are giving some flexibility here for the company to take ownership of the program and to do the validation within the company. And then of course, top management signs off on it as well as the CP EnMS.
The plant can declare at any time during the certification cycle – it doesn’t have to be immediately after the certification. There will be some spot checks by DOE. And maybe a phone call to go over things. So, we’ll of course – we’ll recognize the company. The recognition lasts six months past the SEP certificate, to give companies some time to get the – go to the next certification. We’ll recognize them on our website and other SEP 50001 promotions, and then also mid-certification cycle, the company will have the flexibility to upgrade their color. For example, let’s say the company made a major investment, like a CHP plant, or whatever type of process was improved, and then it’s really changed the improvement substantially, they can go in at 12 months and 24 months and can change their points. Or maybe they did one of the best practices – they feel like it was enough to move them from silver to gold, or gold to platinum. They will have that opportunity to upgrade their color before the next certification cycle.
And of course, there are some credits that apply to the multi-site, that the individual plants can get credit for. Okay, let’s go – so this shows you the Excel file that is the declaration form. You’ll be able to go in and check off whether you’ve done things. There is a little box for each credit to substantiate why you’ve – you’re claiming the credit. That’s part of the verification, and yeah – I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. That is on the website if you want to take a look at it. Okay, next please.
And I think I went over this, in terms of the upgrading, but again it’s at 12 and 24 months, you’ll have the opportunity to do that. The one thing they, you know – of course would be key is if the SEnPI or energy performance changes. You can – you have two choices, you can do early recertification to 50001, or simply have a performance verifier come in. It could be the internal or external person – redo the number, say 12 months after the certification or 24 months, and then they just simply turn in a new energy performance improvement report to us. And then, of course, change the declaration form representing those additional points.
And then we’re – we think the utilities might use this as a way on year on year improvement, so if that’s done, the end user can use that to perhaps upgrade their declaration to DOE. Okay, next please.
So, I think Deanne you’re going to do the transition slides.
Deanne: Thank you, Paul. Next slide, please. All right, so great news – there is a wonderful transition guide available that will help you understand a little bit about this transition and how you need to proceed. It includes a lot of the information that you’re going to need about updating your certified personnel status, having information on which documents to use, and also provides direct links to those documents. And it provides some information on the changes and benefits to the program. And you’ll – the web link is here, and has been said earlier you will be able to see that in your follow-up email. Next slide, please.
So, one of the goals is to make this as easy as possible for all of those who are certified. 50001 2018 has a transition timeline that is already out there. And you’ll see that on the left-hand side of your screen. So, it was published in August of 2018. Our accreditation bodies are now ready to carry out the transition. Our certification bodies who work with 50001 are working on being ready, or have already applied. And, as of February 2020, all certification bodies will be utilizing the new version, 2018, in their audits, and by August of 2021, all organizations will be transitioned to the 2018 version, and the 2011 certificates will be recalled. And hopefully everyone is going to be done by August of 2021. So it’s a three year transition phase. And so most of you may have seen this already, or have already possibly discussed this with your certification bodies.
So to help you out, we have aligned the SEP transition along with the same transition timeframe. So, this program was issued in May, and in August of this year the accreditation bodies will be ready to carry out this transition. In October of 2020, our certification bodies or verification bodies will complete the transition, with a map. And by December of 2020, all of the audits conducted will be to the SEP 50001 2019 program. And by the August 2021 date, everyone will be transitioned over to SEP 2019, and SEP 2017 and 2012 programs will be withdrawn. We also will not accept any new certifications to SEP 2017 or 2012 as of December 6, 2020. So, just to make you aware of those dates. Next slide, please.
So, we also have a variety of training materials that are available for you. There’s a update course on 50001 2018 that is available, that gives you a lot of information on the recent changes, and there’s also a course called specialist training. This is available to help you understand the new version of the 2019 program for SEP. Both of these are online courses, and both of these have knowledge checks as you move through them, and when you complete them, you receive a certificate. You use that certificate to update your credentials with IEnMP, and you can find some additional information on their website as to how to go about doing that. But you will need to have your certified professionals for CP EnMS, and your SEP performance verifier updated.
Also, the title for SEP Lead Auditor has changed, and it’s now the Lead Auditor for SEP 50001. Your credentials will also need to be updated. So this is just to let you know who needs to update that information. Next slide, please.
The CP EnMS has been renamed, and is now 50001 CP EnMS. This is the certified practitioner, and remember this is an important update, because these are the folks who are going to sign off on your scorecard, so you definitely want to make sure your CP’s are getting updated and are ready to do that. They also have some training that they will need update their certificates, and they’re going to get the 50001 update training, and the CP EnMS certification information in terms of what else they need is available on the INMP website. And again, the website links will be sent to you, so no worries.
And now we’re ready for Paul.
Paul: Actually, I think Pamela is going to facilitate things now.
Pamela: Yeah, thanks Paul. Thanks Deanne for explaining the changes to the SEP 2019 program. Now we will take questions from everyone, and although everyone is in listen-only mode, you may submit questions through the chat function that’s located on the control panel of your GoToWebinar interface. And we will address them in turn. Or, if you’d like us to unmute you, then you can press the little hand button to show that you’re raising your hand, and I’ll unmute you so you can ask your questions.
So, I’ll give you a chance to raise your hand, or type in questions in the question field, and we’ll address them in turn.
There is a question about the list of certification bodies available, and if any of them are on a GSA schedule. That might be a question for Deanne.
Deanne: The answer is yes – you find the list of both groups – the CB’s and the VB’s – verification bodies are the ones who can do SEP and 50001, and then the CB’s would be the ones who can do 50001. Both of those are available on the ANAB website, and I will send that link to Pamela so she can add it to the list. And yes, I know that at least one, if not I believe two, are available on the GSA schedule. But you would probably want to confirm that with them individually, because that information does change a little bit, but I know at least one, if not more, are available on that GSA schedule.
Pamela: Thanks, Deanne. And there’s another question about the scorecard, and if each facility in the enterprise needs to complete a different declaration.
Paul: Yes, they do – each – the recognition goes with the facility. So you could have 10 facilities within an enterprise, and then, you know – a couple could be silver, a couple could be gold, and a few, you know, platinum. So each – each facility needs to make their case.
Pamela: Thanks, Paul. We have a question about auditing for multi-site – Deanne, does the central function have to be audited on-site every year, or can they be conducted via desktop?
Deanne: That is a great question, and the answer is, it depends. You do need to audit that central function annually. Can they be audited – can they be audited on a remote function? That depends on whether the verification body that you choose is accredited for that style of auditing, and if they are, the answer is yes, they’re – that would be allowed. But again, it would depend on the particular verification body you’re working with, and whether or not they have been approved to use that particular type of auditing.
Pamela: Thanks, Deanne. There’s another question asking if there’s a complete list of certified facilities on the SEP website, and the answer is yes – there is a list of the names and the achievement levels of the facilities that are currently certified to SEP.
Paul: Maybe go to the next slide, Pamela, with just the website. There we go.
Pamela: Yeah, we can show the string of questions. You can visit these websites to find the resources that we described during the presentation. We’ll also be sending various links to follow up from this presentation. All right, we have a question from [inaudible] if someone already has several sites certified to SEP, on an individual basis, then what is the process to get started for the multi-site certification?
Deanne: That’s a great question. The first thing you’d want to do is take a look at the individual certificates and find the earliest one, because that’s going to be the certificate that you all transition to. The second thing you’d want to do is take a look at the sites that you want to put onto one certificate, and given that new time frame, start to look at their models, and see if they need to consider a different achievement period. Remember, they have choices now between 12, 24, and 36 months. So, can they get a valid model with one of those, using their current baseline period? That requires no SEP administrator approval.
If that works out, you’re good to go. If you need to tweak the model a little bit – it’s not quite working for you – that’s when you’d need to apply for those SEP program administrator approvals. Remember that you will be filling out an application for this, and you need to – you need to fill out one for each of those facilities. And once you’ve done that, and you supply that application, you’ll be good to go.
Pamela: Thanks, Deanne. And did you have any other follow up questions that you wanted to ask? I just unmuted you. Okay, well I just wanted to make sure that those questions were answered. I see another question that came in, asking about what the audit of the central office for SEP 50001 would entail, and where do we find the requirements for the central function for SEP 50001?
Deanne: Okay, those are also really good questions. So, the central office is – and the requirements for those – are found in ANSI MSE 50000-28-2. There is also, for the auditing side of it, and in ANSI MSE 50000-28-1 for the organization side. So if you are wanting to understand what the organization needs to do, you’re going to need to look at 50000-28-1, and if you are wanting to how know it would be audited, or if you’re preparing that for an auditor, you would look at the 50000-28-2.
So that’s where you find them. In terms of what the audit would entail, the central function is where the information from the different sites participating in the multi-site all kind of come together and combine their information. So they may each hold an individual management review to see how their individual sites are doing, but they would bring all that information together and provide that to the central office. So we can look at that across the entire functionality of the system, and make sure that it’s producing the intended results that we need, and so kind of a group management review function.
So the central function is the one that holds that group data and knowledge, and helps to provide feedback to the groups based on that group information and knowledge. And there’s more information on the role that they play in ANSI MSE 50000-28-1, and more information on how they’re audited in ANSI MSE 50000-28-2.
Pamela: Thanks, Deanne. I have another question for you about calculating the sample size for an enterprise and the audit. So I’ll go back to that slide. The question was about the calculation and the rounding – and how it’s rounded.
Deanne: The – when you’re rounding these numbers, you do round up. So, you do typically round up, so the site numbers are rounded up. So, the square root of 3 is 3 – makes it very easy. If there is a number that needs to – that is not a pure number, like in the second one, I think it comes out to 1.8 – of course that gets rounded up to 2.
In the third one, I believe it comes out to 2.4, and that would typically be rounded up to 3.
Paul: Deanne, it says 2 there. I think it –
Deanne: Yeah, we can fix that.
Paul: You mean, even if it’s 2.1, it gets rounded up to 3?
Deanne: Typically we round up.
Paul: Okay. All right. Because usually with rounding, I thought if it’s less than 2 and a half, you would round down, but okay.
Pamela: Thanks, Deanne. Are there any other questions from the audience?
Paul: Good questions.
Pamela: Yeah, great questions, everyone. I’m not seeing any right now, and I don’t see any hands that are raised. So we have one more. If an organization is transitioning from individual site certification to multi-site, will it be considered re-certification?
Deanne: Yes. As you are transitioning from a single site to a multi-site – from single site to multi-site, that is a recertification. So you do get a new certificate, and that’s why it comes – everybody moves up to the earliest date, so the certificate that’s going to expire the soonest. That’s why they all move up to that date. And they would now all fall … single certificate that would be a new certificate that would be issued with new dates.
Pamela: Thanks, Deanne. Any final questions? I’ll just wait a moment. Well, Paul, Deanne – I don’t see any other questions or hands that are raised. If anyone thinks of any questions to ask us, contact us at SEP50001@ee.doe.gov. We have one final question about when the certified professionals have to update their credentials.
Paul: You want to take that, Deanne?
Deanne: Yeah, that’s a great question – when do they have to update their credentials? This is kind of – we’re going to do it from two perspectives. One from an organization’s perspective, and one from an auditor perspective. So, if it’s an organization perspective, you’d want to update those credentials in a time frame that would help your organization as they go through the changes to the 2019 program, so at the beginning of your transition period, that’s when you would really want to do this. So, probably sooner rather than later. And that’s going to help you get this done. You’d also have to have transitioned before you could sign off on the 2019 documents. So, if you wanted to sign off on that scorecard, as a CPEnMs, you’d need to have your 2019 credential. So it would be also value-added to have gone through the training to know what’s on that new scorecard. So that’s how that would help you as an organization.
As an auditor, of course before you do an audit to the 2019 program, you would need to have transitioned your credentials. Now the individual verification body or certification body that an auditor works for may have some additional requirements in terms of that timing, but prior to conducting an audit they would have to have transitioned their credentials.
Pamela: Thanks, Deanne. I don’t see any other questions. As we mentioned, we will be sending these slides to the group, following the webinar. This isn’t your last chance to ask questions – if anything comes to mind after we adjourn, then contact us at SEP50001@ee.doe.gov, and one of the team members will get back to you. So, thank you everyone for all of your great questions and clarifying questions. We will – we hope to remain in touch, and thanks Deanne, thanks Paul for presenting these updates. We will adjourn.
Paul: Thank you very much.