International energy management standard to be agreed

An international standard on energy management is to be created by standards institutes worldwide to help establish a globally recognised way for organisations to measure energy use.

BSI British Standards, along with the national standards bodies of the United States of America (ANSI), Brazil (ABNT) and China (SAC), is to head up the committee charged with developing the new standard, known as ISO 50001.

Mike Low, director of BSI British Standards, said the project is vital to helping provide a common benchmark for power use.

"Energy management should be on every boardroom agenda and our aim is to use the vast experience we have of delivering environmental solutions to develop a standard which leads the way forward in this field," he said.

The first meeting on the standard earlier this week saw representatives from 25 countries attend, prompting the guiding committee to claim that when established, the standard could potentially be adopted by up to 60 per cent of the world's energy users.

The committee said that it aims to have ISO 50001 ready for publication by the end of 2010.