Berkeley Lab Supports Award-Winning NASA Energy Management Effort

April 14, 2021

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently received a federal award for its participation in 50001 Ready, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program administered by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

NASA won a Director’s Award from DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) for its “headquarters-driven, agency-wide commitment to implementing the 50001 Ready program in support of agency strategic energy management goals,” according to the award citation. The FEMP Director's Award is chosen at the discretion of the agency’s director to recognize distinguished individuals, organizations and/or teams for outstanding leadership and collaboration that results in benefits across the federal government. 

50001 Ready guides energy managers in transforming project-by-project energy management into a comprehensive, process-based approach. The name refers to ISO 50001, the internationally recognized standard for energy management published by the International Organization for Standardization. The 50001 Ready program brings together the people who manage energy consumption and the actual energy end-uses across a facility.

During the past year, NASA completed FEMP’s 50001 Ready training curriculum for all 15 of its Space Centers and aligned agency-wide energy policy with ISO 50001 requirements. With support from the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company Advanced Energy, Berkeley Lab designed and moderated the 50001 Ready training program that NASA participated in.

Through regular technical support, Berkeley Lab will continue to support NASA’s effort to implement 50001 Ready across the agency. Progress is tracked using DOE’s 50001 Ready Navigator tool, which provides step-by-step guidance to help organizations implement their energy management systems.

"It was a tremendous pleasure moderating NASA's 50001 Ready cohort. The space center energy managers always offered interesting questions and thoughts about how to best integrate current efforts into a holistic energy management system,” said Jerrilyn Goldberg, a Berkeley Lab research associate who leads outreach and training for federal adoption of 50001 Ready. “We look forward to continuing to support their pursuit of continual energy performance improvement."

Learn more about NASA's 50001 Ready Cohort experience here.