Proposing a quantitative approach to measure the success of energy management systems in accordance with ISO 50001: 2011 using an analytical hierarchy process (AHP)

ISO 50001: 2011 provides an integrated and systematic framework to plan, implement, operate, certify, and maintain energy management systems (EMSs). Evaluation of organizations in relation to meeting the standard requirements is performed by an auditing qualitative approach. In this research, a quantitative approach has been proposed and implemented to assess organizations and rank them based on the related capabilities of the EMS. Initially, ISO 50001 was accurately reviewed to extract requirements. Later, an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was used to perform pair-wise comparison and to specify the importance factors of ISO 50001 requirements. A number of Iranian oil and gas plants were evaluated in accordance with the specified requirements of ISO 50001. The results of the evaluation were used to rank the considered plant in capabilities of the EMS. In addition, it was used to specify which areas of ISO 50001 need more attention in the considered plants. Finally, the improvement approaches were proposed to enable Iranian oil and gas plants to increase the effectiveness of the implemented EMS.