Innovation September-October 2013

f ea t u r e s

• Establish energy objectives and targets that are measure- able and have timelines for achievement. • Establish an action plan to achieve energy objectives and targets. • Implement the action plan. • Check performance. • Monitor, document and report all the above. 1

Energy Management Information System An Energy Management Information System, or EMIS, is an essential component to support the ISO 50001 system, especially in terms of setting energy objectives and targets, monitoring, measurement and analysis and for being aware of significant deviations from target baselines. A useful resource was the EMIS Planning Manual and Tool, available free of charge on the NR Canada website. This excellent tool got the program started in the right way.

After an audit of the existing energy management system (which, in this case, there wasn’t), the first step was to set up Energy Account Centres (EACs) and assign energy types (electricity, diesel, natural gas) to each EAC. This enabled the allocation of en- ergy costs to the various cost centres, it enabled the monitoring of energy performance for each of the account centres and it also allowed the measurement of what ISO 50001 calls the Significant Energy Uses or SEUs. SEUs are the processes which use the ma- jority of the energy at a facility. Sub-metering was required to collect the neces- sary energy information for each EAC. The infor- mation from the energy meters was collected by a programmable controller and made available to an existing OSI PI data management system. There were 152 electrical sub-meters, 4 new gas meters and 2 pulse hand-offs at the incoming gas stations. The balance of the energy sources would be entered manually until the data capture could be automated. Next, software was required. The basic specifica- tions of the software were that all the data should be available in the OSI PI system, the software should support ISO 50001, should meet the EMIS criteria laid out in the NR Canada EMIS guidelines and had to be operational in less than 3 months. ADM Sys- tems Engineering, a PI System integrator, was chosen. They had proposed the RtEMIS developed by RtTech Software, which was based on the PI System.

Management Responsibility & Policy

Planning

Management Review

Implementation and Operation

Checking

FIGURE 1 . ISO 50001 Energy Management System (EnMs) Structure and Elements. Source: Lauri Gregg, LCG Energy Management Group.

ISO 50001 – How? In order to undertake a project of this nature, management support was essential. Proven support from top management was a requirement for New Afton to apply for and receive funding from Natural Resources Canada to support the implementation of the ISO 50001 standard. The biggest part of the implementation of ISO 50001 was the planning. It took a while to understand what was required in terms of baselines, energy performance indicators (EnPIs), energy objectives, energy targets and energy management action plans. Lauri Gregg, an independent consultant from LCG Energy Management Group and a member of the Canadian Advisory Committee for developing ISO 50001, assisted with the process. Management support and extensive planning are not enough for a system to be successfully implemented; it takes people. Working in conjunction with BC Hydro Power Smart and Prism Engineering, a comprehensive communication, training and awareness plan was put together, outlining how New Afton would “get the message out there” as well as the training required in terms of the standard.

This project has been a little like parachuting. There was a rush of excitement and trepidation in May 2012 when New Afton took a leap of faith and started working towards being ISO 50001 com- pliant. The EMIS was completed in December 2012 and, with the foundation for ISO 50001 in place, planning started in earnest. With a certification audit planned for December 2013, it would be fair to say that, with the ISO 50001 implementation, the ground rush has begun. ISO 50001 – The Benefits So, what are the benefits of the system? At the time of writing, the implementation is not yet complete, but some benefits have already manifested. One of the biggest benefits, thus far, has been having energy information available in the OSI PI system, primarily as a result of the EMIS: • Information necessary for the energy review was available;

1 Natural Resources Canada, “ISO 50001 Energy Management System Standard”, CME Annual Energy Excellence Event, 2011.

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