The U.S. Department of Energy hosted the webinar, 50001 Ready Utility Network Series: Navigator Tool Update, in February 2019 to address the updates made to the 50001 Ready Navigator online tool. The revisions capture the changes introduced in ISO 50001:2018, the globally-accepted energy management systems standard. This webinar provides a guided tour through the key changes and offers guidance to help users transition/migrate their existing projects in the tool to the updated Navigator structure.
This webinar is part of DOE’s 50001 Ready Utility Network Series, a forum for utilities, public benefit administrators (PBA’s), third party implementers, consultants, and regulators who share an interest in energy management systems (EnMS) including ISO 50001 and DOE’s 50001 Ready program. Explore 50001 Ready resources tailored to utilities, implementers, and energy service providers.
Transcription
Peter Therkelsen: Good morning, good afternoon again. This is Peter Therkelsen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and welcome to the February 50001 Ready Utility Network Series.
So, today’s agenda – 50001 Ready Navigator updated. This is a large undertaking, from the Department of Energy and LBNL, to bring the Navigator guidance into alignment with ISO 50001 – the 2018 version of the Energy Management System standard, formerly the Navigator guidance aligned to ISO 50001 2011. We want to discuss with you today about that update, how projects in the Navigator are migrated, and the implications of this update on multi-site as well as the partner platform, which a number of you are part of. We also wanted to go over any questions and provide any answers you have, regarding this update to the Navigator.
In addition to those updates about the Navigator itself, we want to provide an update on participation, the TAG for ISO TC301, which is the place where ISO 50001 is drafted, and provide some other brief, 50001 Ready news and updates.
Ethan Rogers of the Advanced Manufacturing Office is going to be presenting the updates today. Ethan, do you want to take it over?
Ethan Rogers: Yes, thank you Peter. Hello everyone, this is Ethan Rogers, with the Advanced Manufacturing Office. I appreciate all of you making time in your day to hear about the updates of the 50001 Ready Navigator program and tool.
As Peter mentioned, the biggest change that happened back in December was aligning the Navigator to the new 50001 2018 version, and that reflects the high-level structure that ISO has created for all of its management standards. And the nice thing about that is that if you’re doing 50001, or 14001, or 9001, there’s a common protocol or structure between those, and so you can – it’s easier to coordinate your activities between those different standards.
A lot of it has to do with strategic direction, the roles of top management, and just integrating those management practices. It also standardizes much of the use of units and energy improvements when calculating weather and occupancy, and things like that.
I’m not sure – this may not be displaying well for everybody, but the picture in the far right – the big square there – would have a list of all the different changes for the 25 tasks that the Navigator is built around. As most of you are familiar with the Navigator, all of the different components of the 50001 have been broken down into these 25 tasks. And these have been now realigned to conform with ISO’s high-level structure. And so, on the website, you can see how under the 2011 they were organized, and then how that has been changed over to the 2018 version.
But keep in mind that this is a guidance – you know, the Navigator is not set up like ISO standard where you have to do things a certain way. The Navigator is all about providing you a guidance document, a tool to organize your energy management activities.
So, if you’re happy with the 2011 version – if it’s working for you, if you’ve got your project in there, and you have – you know, let’s say you’re halfway done, or almost all the way done – you might want to just stay with the 2011 version, rather than migrate to 2018. If you were to start something in the new one, let’s say today, it would automatically have you start with the 2018 version. And so, the 25 tasks are now grouped in seven sections – and again, this is according to the new standard. And you can see that it’s the context of the organization, and the leadership tasks – planning, support, operation, performance evaluation, and improvements – and each of those tasks line up.
And you’ve got the – you’ll see your dashboard will have seven dials on it as opposed to four, which is what you had in the past. In the past those 25 tasks were organized into four groups, and those would show up as four dials on your dashboard. I’m going to pause here for a moment, and just ask – I have not seen the detailed pictures there – there we go. So, I suspect not everybody else has seen it too. So, it looks like we have a nice little correction there. This is better. So, we can go on to the next slide.
And you can see there, the dashboard that I was talking about, with the seven dials on it. And so, but again, it will help you keep track of the progress of your project as you move along.
Of course, there are lot of different resources in the Navigator – it is first and foremost a guide to walk you through implementing an energy management system, but the other great part of the Navigator is all the different resources that we have built into it. There were 129 built into the 2011 version. And so we’ve now reorganized those to be more compatible with the 25 tasks. So we took all of them, grouped them together, and kind of did this nice filtering, so to make it a little bit easier for you. They’re easier to find, easier to use – but those 129 are still there. If there’s one or two of those that you really like, you can still get to it. It’s in an archive, you can also search for it. Everything’s still there, but if you’re still using the 2011 version, you should have no trouble getting to things.
So we wanted to make sure everything was there for you. And, because now with the way we’ve set them up in the 2018 version, is that you can take these worksheets, and you can print them out, get yourself a three-ring binder, and create yourself a workbook. It really is designed to be a – kind of aid your implementation of your energy management system, and create you both individual documents that are useful, but collectively can help you track your progress, and document your progress. And then I’ll say, I mean, if I were to do it, I’d probably – because I’m old school – I’d get a three-ring binder, put some holes in each of these pages, put it in there and have a nice little document. But certainly, you can do it electronically.
Something to keep in mind, as you’re doing this, is that this change affects projects. It doesn’t affect you as a user. The individual projects are going to essentially stay with the 2011 version, or you can migrate them to the 2018, or you can start a new one in the 2018 version. But you as yourself – it doesn’t change your status within the platform. So, you could have a 2011 project that you’re working on; you could also have a 2018. It would not prevent you from doing that – it doesn’t prevent you from accessing the different resources that I just mentioned. So, you have the option of migrating your project up to one year, and after that, then we’ll kind of shut down the 2011 version and migrate things over.
If you have a multi-site project, those all need to be migrated at the same time, and we’ll talk about that here in a little bit. But if you’re going to create a new project, that will automatically be created in the new version, and no effort on your part is required, so you can just start up a new project and away you go.
How do you know which one you’ve got? So, when you log in, and you open up your website, if you see this dashboard, with only four dials, you’ve got the old version. And if you want to migrate it, it’s quite simple. There’s a little orange button there – you can see highlighted – and you can just click on that, and that will indicate that you want to upgrade. And it will do it automatically. But, you have a chance to check and make sure that all of the assignments you’ve done are still with the people you want doing them. This is – remember, there’s 25 different tasks; when you went through and you started doing these tasks, you probably assigned them to various people, and since those tasks don’t line up one-for-one between 2011 and 2018 versions, some of the assignments may have changed. And so you can go through here, click on these buttons, make sure that you have - the right person is still selected, and if not, change it. And then once you’re done, you click on a button, and select that you want to confirm your migration, and then you’re good to go.
If you have any questions about opened up individual information – you can see the step 7 optional task there – you can click on those boxes and get additional information about each one of those tasks, if you’re not quite sure what each of them is about. So, the folks at LBNL have this very simple for you – it should go fairly effortlessly on your part to migrate from the old system to the new system, if that’s something that you want to do.
If you have a multi-site project, you need to migrate everything all at once. You can’t just do one project at a time – it’s all got to be moved as one group. So, you’re going to come into your page for the multi-site, and again, you can see that there’s going to be a note there, saying that you’ve got the older version, and it will give you the option of migrating it. There is a little bit of a backend work that we have to do on this, so when you make that request, it will not happen automatically, but it will happen quickly. We’ll have to do a little bit of work on our end to make sure that the migration happens. I don’t fully understand the details of the software behind it, but suffice it to say, the folks at LBNL will take care of you, and make sure that your multi-site gets moved over and properly formatted and all that.
There’s plenty of resources here, and this – of course, this presentation will available on the website afterwards. It will take us a few days to transcribe it and post it, so you’ll be able to come to this PowerPoint presentation and click on these. But these links are also available on our – on our Better Buildings, Better Plants Solution Center (website), and so we have information about the transition from 2011 to 2018. And you can – a lot of detail about the changes in those different 25 tasks, so you can do a selection – you can see comparisons between the selections. It also explains what ISO accomplished when they created that high-level structure, and how it’s working with the other management standards.
There’s also some training available through Georgia Tech, on the ISO 50001:2018 standard, as well as the update, and then there is a free recording of the changes that have been made, that we did a while back.
So many of you, as Peter mentioned, are part of our program – our Partners program. And this is a very nice feature of the platform that allows, whether it’s a company, or a utility, you know, program administrator, to create within the Navigator platform, a room, if you will - that’s how I visualize it – where they can have visibility to the people participating in their different cohorts. And so it doesn’t allow them to control anything, but, for example, if there’s a utility program and it’s got a cohort of let’s say a dozen people, who have created projects within the Navigator. It allows them to see how those dozen folks are progressing with using the Navigator. It allows them to provide custom guidance, or you know, send information to them.
And so, this is really one of the things that we’ve been really pleased with, is how popular the Navigator has become, with the different utility sector energy efficiency programs out there. And I think, it’s because, it gives you this nice structure that is aligned with the ISO 50001 Standard, and creates commonality across their portfolio. A lot of the implementers of strategic energy management programs have programs in multiple states that they’re implementing. And so, this allows them to have standardization across the programs they have in different states.
It also is easier with – for program developers to use the Navigator, to help organize some of their activities. So, we’re very happy with the uptake that we’ve seen with the Navigator and the Ready program. And this – oh, and also, by virtue of the fact that, you know, this was created by the Department of Energy, I think it communicates a value, and maybe perhaps a lot of trust to your program stakeholders, both the folks participating in the program and outside of the program.
And so, people who are part of the – partners within the Ready program have access to our logos, and as I mentioned, there’s a co-branding capability, and then of course the recognition that the Ready program provides.
And so, as you can see, here’s different things that you would see your logo on – we do case studies, we recognize both the individual facilities that have self-attested to being 50001 Ready, as well as the programs. We provide a lot of information and resources to our program partners – we want them to be successful in the management and administration of their programs.
Let’s see… Oh yes, showcases. We’re always interested in highlighting the success of facilities and programs using the Ready program and the Navigator. And, two or three times a year, we write up these showcases and we post them to our website, we do press releases, blog posts, and things like this, so a great way to get recognition from the U.S. Department of Energy about your activities, your clients activities, or if you’re an end user, the accomplishments that you’ve made at your facility. We’re very, very interested in promoting the success people are having, implementing energy management systems.
Here’s an example of some of our program partners already – and again, we’re always looking for more. And, probably the only requirement is they be U.S. based, and, you know, adhere to the conditions of the agreement that we have for becoming a program partner.
Let’s see – and I think the next slide, yes, talks about the U.S. technical advisory group to the ISO technical committee, 301. And this is – as Peter mentioned, this is where the ISO 50001 standard was created, and is updated, and as we look to the future of this standard, just energy management systems in general – I think the more voices that we have participating in the TAG who are contributing to the technical committee, the more useful this standard will be throughout the country and around the world, and so I would encourage you to consider getting involved in the U.S. TAG, and contributing to the continued development of the ISO 50001 standard.
If this is of interest to you, you can contact the TAG administrator, Deann Desai – she is with Georgia Tech. I believe most of you are already familiar with the Ready program, but there’s our website, and you can also get information on the partner program, and of course access to all of the different resources we have, including the EnPI Lite tool, Navigator tool, and everything like that. So I think I went through this probably a lot quicker than Peter or Amy was expecting me too, but it leaves us plenty of time for questions. I also mentioned that we have online Pete Langlois, whom I work with here at Advanced – at AMO, and he is the manager for the 50001 Ready program, and so for the questions that I can’t answer, I’ll invite him to chime in as well as Peter and Amy. So, we’ll kind of open up the lines at this point, and see what questions folks have.
Peter: And just to let people know, you all are muted by default – you should be able to independently unmute yourselves and ask questions, although we please ask that you re-mute yourself after you’ve asked your question, to make sure we don’t have any background noise. Alternatively, please provide a chat question, either to the whole group or to myself and I will relay it.
And one question that just came in through the chat to myself – is there any differentiation on the recognition DOE provides, for doing the current Navigator versus the old Navigator?
Ethan: No, the recognition is the same. So, we would still send out the same information, or recognition certificate – the difference would be it would stipulate the newer version I think.
I also mentioned that – I think I mentioned this in the – but if you do absolutely nothing, if you already have a project set up in the Navigator, and you do absolutely nothing, it will automatically be migrated over – I believe it’s going to be at the end of the year, is that right, Peter?
Peter: Yes, at the end of this calendar year, yes.
Ethan: So you can obviously migrate it on your own, or you can finish it up this year, and I suppose that would be the first choice. Or – but if you have any questions, you can just, you know, let us know – happy to answer any questions you have, and help you with your use of the tool.
Peter: Another question came in on the chat. If I received 50001 Ready recognition under the old Navigator, when we annually re-certify, do I need to use the new Navigator?
Ethan: I think I’m going to defer to Pete on this, but I believe the answer is no, I think you’re good. Is that correct?
Peter: Maybe a little nuance – maybe the question was a bit ambiguous. There are three points in time in which projects will migrate over to the – from the old version to the new version of 50001 Ready, and that is either on your own, when you click the migrate button; one is at the end of one year, so at the end of 2020, all of the remaining projects will be migrated; or if you receive recognition through the old version of the Navigator. So once you receive recognition to the 2011 version, if you have not migrated prior to that, your project will automatically be migrated to the new version, and one year later, you will re-attest to maintain your 50001 Ready designation to the new version of the Navigator.
Pete Langlois: Thank you for that, Peter – this is Pete Langlois, by the way. And a good lesson for all of us – I was trying to give that exact explanation, but I was still muted. So, for those of you on the call, it is star 6, I believe, if you want to unmute yourself. I hadn’t grasped that earlier, but thank you for that, Peter. Yeah, the short answer is, we’re keeping the 2011 version for calendar year 2020, and at that point, yes, everybody’s going to need to be over in the new version following that, I guess starting January 1 of 2021.
And by the way, while we’re still waiting for more questions – and thank you, can I just add one more thing, you guys?
Ethan: Mmm-hmm.
Pete: Ok, to those on the call – and thank you so much – and I know we kind of raced through a lot of the improvements, so by all means, you know, reach out to us offline or afterwards if you’d like, but one thing that’s always been so helpful to us, has been the feedback from those of you at utilities, or program implementers, or specifically from your customers – all of the above. And so, we didn’t talk about it too much here, but I want to emphasize the idea with the worksheets – was that we struggled with all of those resources over time, thinking, well we have the benefit of several years of ISO 50001 implementations out there in the real world, you know, let’s try to give people, you know, examples, templates, worksheets – but, sometimes they fit and sometimes they didn’t.
And the idea behind the worksheets is, it’s a one size – and I’m not going to say one size fits all, because that’s a little much – but it’s a one size fits most way of walking through the particular task, asking yourself and your team internally the questions that you would need to ask yourself, just as part of doing that task. And rather that have it be, you know, well we got eight resources on this particular task, but maybe only two on this one – it’s like, look, let’s sit down, clean sheet of paper, figure out what’s going to work for most organizations, so that they can grasp it on an initial walkthrough.
So, we really want your feedback on the worksheets. We’ve already gotten some, from people who have been using these over the last couple of months, and it’s part of our benefit – part of our continual improvement operations here, to try and make things better for you and your customers. So, by all means, if you have the opportunity, and you just note something, or you say, hey, for our particular, you know, business or whatever, it might be helpful if it says this – then please let me and the team know, and we’ll certainly take that into account, because that’s how we get better. So, thank you for – guys for the opportunity to share that with everyone.
Peter: Another question came in through the chat. What are the advantages of migrating a customer to 50001 Ready, if they are already currently involved with utility-sponsored multi-year strategic energy management programs? Is it mainly a necessary step towards 50001 certification? And Ethan, I’ll – maybe split that question into two potential clarifications – one being, if a implementer is working with a customer already with the 2011 version of the Navigator, is there an overwhelming reason to transition them today, and then the second part I’ll split is, is it - Ready a necessary step towards receiving ISO 50001 certification?
Ethan: Yeah. I think that – when I visualize a program that’s going to have a cohort of folks, organizations involved, using the Navigator, I think that really it’s going to be up to that program administrator whether or not the migration happens. And I think that would be dependent upon timing. I don’t know that it would be an urgent thing for them to do, but it’s something that they certainly want to be thinking about. If they’re going to have projects ongoing beyond 2020, then they probably want to make the transition sometime – I would think they’d want to do it sometime fairly soon, so that people don’t get too far down the road with the 2011 version. Because, you know, in the future, you would want to be working with a version that’s aligned with the 2018 version of the ISO standard.
So I think that it’s the – maybe the answer there is that it depends, right? If the cohort’s going to finish up, let’s say, in the next six months, then I’m not sure that they would need to make that migration. I mean, that would be kind of my instinctive response.
In terms of, let’s say, you were to go for ISO 50001 certification – then, I think it would be prudent to switch over to the 2018. I just think that that would be the most efficient and effective thing to do, and I would do it fairly quickly. I don’t know that it is – I guess in some ways, it ultimately would be necessary, because if you’re going to get a facility certified, to ISO 50001, let’s say whether it’s later on this year or in 2021, it’s going to be certified to the new ISO standard – the 2018 version. So you want to be setting up your energy management system following that kind of hierarchy.
Jay Wrobel: Hey, do you mind if I jump in as well here?
Ethan: Sure.
Jay: Yeah, this is Jay Wrobel with DOE also. Good question – a couple of comments: if you’re not part of a current 50001 program, but you’re part of a utility SEM program, we really built the 50001 Ready to be a complement to existing SEM programs, and we think it’s a light lift to add the 50001 Ready components. The real reason why you may want to consider, is one, we have verified M&V around the O&M savings, that can help you in claiming savings from a commission or other folks who are looking for claimed savings; two, because it’s linked to the ISO standards, like 14001 and 9001, it brings a global and national consistency around energy management systems, not just as kind of an ad-hoc, if you will, SEM program, but actually gets the customer into the ISO flow that’s consistent with a lot of current business practices.
And then, three, we think the DOE recognition that utilities can offer, either co-branded or with us, is of interest to sites, just like right now we see Energy Star and LEED are interesting drivers to keep people engaged – I think the DOE recognition can help in that as well, so, hopefully that answers that question.
Ethan: Thanks Jay, that was very helpful.
Peter: There was a clarification on the original question, saying that they were asking if the program’s – the SEM program’s not currently part of the 2011 version of the Navigator, and I think Jay, your response spoke to that potentially, in that Navigator is a resource for utilities, implementers, and end-users to make use of as fits their needs, and it is not a requirement, so it provides value in terms of DOE recognition, alignment with the ISO 50001 standard, and especially for corporate-wide rollout of an energy management system and business practice, that consistency is quite helpful.
Jay: And I would also add, given what Pete Langlois just said, which I think is absolutely right – you know, the playbooks are a good starting point for an implementer to customize for their specific programs and their utility interests, so having that common core of already prepared documents that walk people through SEM is kind of kickstart way to get the SEM program converted.
Peter: We have a – another chat question came in. It says, “it might be helpful to have the archived resources organized by task number – I found some of those examples quite helpful. I think they are harder to find, although I have not worked with playbook much yet.” And I would quickly point two things – one, we internally debated organizing in task number, but as the task numbers have changed, from the previous version of the Navigator to the current, we wanted to maintain a consistency and not add to confusion by having two sets of task numbers. Additionally, we went through an internal process of assessing the feedback we received on the resources, to incorporate multiple of those resources into single playbook files for each task. So, I’m hopeful that if we did our jobs right, your favorite resources are incorporated into the playbook files as-is. So I would ask to first check the playbook files, see if what you found useful before is contained in them, and if not, please provide that feedback, so that we can continually improve those resources.
Ethan: Any other questions? Comments? Concerns? Suggestions?
Peter: One more question just came in, Ethan – is there a time limit for 50001 Ready mode of operating going forward before the next step?
Ethan: I’m not sure I understand the question.
Pete: I’m not sure I do either – I’m looking at the chat window as well. This is Pete Langlois. If in terms if you’re asking, hey, we’ve started a project – you know, when can we come back to it? We’ve seen people that have come and picked up, you know, their activity after, you know, many months away. And that’s fine. The only thing I would caution you about this, though – if you do have an active project under the 2011 regime, then yeah, come the end of calendar year 2020, you’ll want to migrate that over, or we’ll migrate it over for you. But otherwise, if you’re just talking about an absence of being away from the Navigator tool, we work with a lot of organizations that do a lot of their work offline, and then come back in and pick it up, and after a period of time. That’s fine. If that’s not what you’re asking, then please reach out to us afterwards or clarify here in the chat.
Ethan: Well, I guess barring a – nope, here’s another question coming in. Can you be 50001 recognized without actually using the tracking tool or playbook? I have used the guide only.
So, to become 50001 Ready recognized, you have to accomplish each of the tasks, the 25 tasks, within the Navigator tool, and document that you have accomplished them, and then self-attest. So, I think the answer is yes you can. I’ll let Pete confirm that I’m understanding the question correctly.
Pete: Yeah, I think you are. In terms of the playbook, though, yes – the playbook is completely optional. It’s just another way that we’ve set it up so that here’s an additional form of guidance, if you’d like it in the form, that as Ethan said, you can take and kind of think of as, you know, one chapter for 25 chapters for your book of energy management, if you want to look at it that way.
So, however you do it, however you accomplish the task, offline, online – completely up to you. But in terms of the requesting the recognition, that is done through the tool, and to do that, you do need to mark “self-attest” and the fact that you’ve completed each of the tasks. And at that point then, it will open up access to be able to submit the few forms that we require, but to start the recognition process – that is done online through the tool.
Thank you for the question.
Pete: Ethan, it’s Pete. And maybe Peter, chime in on this. There is a requirement to show an improvement – you do have all sorts of options in terms of how you want to gauge whether you have improved from the reporting period – from the baseline period to the reporting period. A slight clarification in terms of 50001 Ready recognition – for the initial recognition, for any facility that’s done a project in there, we do only require the very first time, the baseline reporting. Because we understand that if they’ve just implemented a system, and you’re just starting to do the performance measurements, you may not have the data that would show that you’ve improved during your performance period year over year. And now, that would hold you back in terms of actually being certified. That would be what an auditor would need. But for the initial recognition of 50001 Ready – that’s all we want. We want to see that people are getting started on the process.
For the renewal, for a year later, then we would actually want to see that you have a reporting period versus the baseline period, and that you’ve hopefully improved. Now over the course of a few years, we understand it can fluctuate a little bit, and we’ve had circumstances where organizations, you know, may not improve every single year, and we can look at that on a case-by-case basis. But, in terms of the standard, I believe, for being certified, you would need to show an improvement based under whatever criteria you’ve decided to report.
Do I have that right, Peter?
Peter: Yes, in short for Ready, there are no pre-determined energy reduction goals; for ISO 50001 itself, there are no pre-determined energy reduction goals. In both cases, the organization needs to establish what their energy targets and objectives are. For ISO 50001 itself, you establish on what scope of boundaries you’re going to demonstrate improvement, and for Ready first-time recognition, you just need to show that you understand your energy performance, or quite frankly, your energy baseline, and for subsequent recognition, to demonstrate at the facility-wide level, hopefully energy performance improvement, those we have some wiggle room built in, because we understand that things fluctuate.
Pete: Thanks Peter.
Ethan: Peter, I’ll turn it over to you to kind of wrap things up, and, unless there are any other questions, I thank everybody for coming along and we are planning on having another one of these webinars in about three months, I believe, is the plan, and we’re contemplating a couple of different topics on what we’re going to cover there. But look for information from us in an email, probably in the next month or so. But Peter, I turn it back over to you.
Peter: Sure, thank you Ethan, and there is a quick follow-up to the last question that says, without energy reduction goals, regulated utilities may find it difficult to undertake this effort, and fitting back with the earlier responses from all of our DOE participants – Jay, Pete, and Ethan – that Navigator and the recognition program are meant to be flexible tools for utilities, public benefit administrators, and implementers’ use. If additional requirements for a strategic energy management program should be provided in addition to what the Navigator guidance provides – Navigator doesn’t have necessarily requirements, but is guidance – that’s great for that utility or PBA to have. And establishing goals with customers is a great idea, and many utilities do that, and the Navigator can fully support that approach as well.
And as Ethan mentioned, we’ll be in contact with everyone about our upcoming webinar in a few months, and thank you all for your time. Please feel free at any moment to send the 50001 Ready help desk email questions about the transition, or to ask for any assistance migrating your projects from the older version, the 2011-based version of the Navigator, to the newer 2018 version of the Navigator tool.
Thank you.