Energy Management Systems in SMEs: Relevance, State of Research and Requirements
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7250/csimq.2025-42.02Keywords:
Energy Management, Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises, SME, Relevance, Requirements, Literature Analysis, Survey, Management SystemsAbstract
Energy management and its organizational implementation by energy management systems (EnMS) have increased substantially in importance during the last few years. Some of the reasons for this trend are a growing number of regulations in the area of sustainability, the need to reduce energy consumption due to higher costs, and the intention to avoid energy waste. EnMS is not a new topic, and there is some research on how to introduce and operate EnMS in large organizations, but the situation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) regarding EnMS is not well-researched. The main objective of the research presented in this article is to contribute to a better understanding of the state of research and also the state of practice in energy management of SMEs as a foundation for future research in the field. The contributions of this article are (1) the results of a survey among SMEs confirming the relevance of energy management and a lack of knowledge of how to implement energy management systems, (2) the results of a systematic literature study structuring the existing work on EnMS for SMEs, (3) the outline of a proposal how to support SMEs in energy management, and (4) interviews with experts from SMEs to elicit basic requirements for EnMS implementation in practice. The main finding of the article is that there is a demand in SMEs for tailored support in EnMS introduction, but no suitable solution in the scientific body of knowledge.
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