By the middle of 2007, the German Federal Government, as an international pioneer for climate protection, had already defined the benchmarks for an integrated energy and climate program. One of the goals of this program was the conclusion of an agreement with the German economy on the implementation of energy management systems in medium to large size companies by 2013 at the latest - based on power and electricity tax incentives. Energy management systems in industrial companies shall help to determine, utilize and document potential for improved energy efficiency along with cost reductions.

The new DIN EN 16001, which came into effect as from January 2010, defines the general framework for this approach. It obliges companies to continually improve their energy efficiency and specifies details concerning the implementation of energy management systems.  Specialists from different industrial sectors came together at the ProLeiT specialist conference in Herzogenaurach at the end of March 2010: Under the motto of "Energy efficiency in the food industry", this special event was a great opportunity to gain information on requirements and opportunities for the food industry in particular.

DIN EN 16001 defines the following guiding principles: As a first step,

• the actual situation must be determined and
• energy saving goals must be defined.
• Afterwards, their implementation must be controlled and documented by the specialists

responsible.

The implementation of an energy management system provides two major advantages: In addition to clear consumption and cost reductions for primary and secondary energy carriers, which can even reach a double-digit percentage range, companies which prepare for this change in time will benefit from major tax reductions in the fields of electricity and fuel.

All the experts agree that a process control system which enables the complete acquisition of energy data parallel to process control provides a major prerequisite for an energy management system. Later, analyses can be generated from consumption data and critical units or process stages determined. Wasted energy can thus be traced with regard to its exact time and place of occurrence. Based on this sophisticated information, an energy management system with automatic and technologically coordinated load shedding can be set up which, in its final stage, also meets the requirements of DIN EN 16001.