1. What does the planning phase mean?

Planning—Translating the commitment and energy policy into objectives, targets and action plans

Planning aims to determine ways of using energy. It is basically an energy review for comparison between baseline and measured improvements.The purpose of the energy review process is to examine your energy use in a systematic  way and to focus your efforts on the most significant energy uses and saving opportunities.

It is fundamental to know how much energy is being used, where, and for what purpose. It is necessary to identify indicators that show progress towards the objectives and targets. Throughout this phase energy policy goes into a set of specific actions to be implemented over the coming period in order to improve your energy performance.

The questions you need to be able to answer are:

• How much energy is used in the company? What is the trend of this usage? Where is it used? Where are the most significant energy uses concentrated?
• What is driving this usage, e. what variable is causing energy use to change? Which people have a significant impact on the organization’s energy performance?
• What indicators can I use to measure and manage the organization’s energy performance? What opportunities do I have to improve the organization’s energy performance?
• What are the organization’s energy performance improvement objectives and targets?
• What are the organization’s energy performance improvement action plans for the coming period?