Overcoming Implementation Gaps Through A Business-Oriented Energy Management System Support Package in China

摘要

Seeking new ways to achieve further energy efficiency results in the face of rising energy, environmental, and economic challenges, the Chinese government is encouraging the country’s largest energy-consuming industrial enterprises to establish Energy Management Systems (EnMS). International and increasing Chinese experience shows that effective EnMS implementation is a key means for enterprises to continuously and systematically identify, achieve, and sustain substantial cost, energy, and emissions savings, and increase competitiveness. In the past few years, China has developed national and provincial-level EnMS standards and policies, sector guidelines, and local capacity to implement EnMS. These efforts helped create initial awareness, an institutional framework, and a few strong case studies around international-standard EnMS implementation in China. However, further policy design and implementation efforts are necessary to achieve impact in China’s changing competitive industrial environment. Additional domestic and international support could greatly help to build capacity, approaches, and tools that can be harnessed by the market to achieve scale. This paper provides an overview of China’s experience in promoting EnMS, and discusses efforts underway to fill gaps in the implementation of quality EnMS in China. It explores the collaborative work of local governments, enterprises, and experts to develop a local platform of EnMS knowledge, experience, examples, and tools through pilot and large-scale capacity building and implementation programs. The paper then provides conclusions on where further support is needed for effectively scaling up China’s promising program.