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EERE » AMO eGuide

How Does eGuide Work?

The DOE eGuide is a dynamic tool that guides your energy team to build and continually improve your energy management program over time. eGuide provides you and your energy management team the guidance and resources you need to develop an effective and resilient energy management program for your organization—regardless of its size or type.

The new DOE eGuide is designed with the end-user—YOU—in mind. There are three levels for you to choose from to account for different needs:

  • Level 1 is the Foundational Energy Management level—this level helps you get started with a structured approach to energy management that any commercial, industrial, or government organization can implement, even if you have little or no experience with energy management.
  • Level 2 is the ISO 50001 Energy Management level—this level provides guidance information to help you understand the ISO 50001 energy management standard requirements and the actions you need to take, along with resources and examples to help your organization get started.
  • Level 3 is the SEP™ Program level—this level builds upon ISO 50001, providing guidance on the additional requirements to achieve DOE Superior Energy Performance®.

Common across each level, the eGuide guides you through DOE’s 5 Steps to Energy Management. This five step framework is consistent across the three levels, providing a systematic approach to energy management that emphasizes continual improvement.

Substeps & Tasks

Corresponding to each core step are substeps that guide you through what you need to accomplish. Each substep is organized into four sections:

  • Overview: provides an introduction to the substep
  • How to do it: Contains guidance on the specific tasks that you will need to complete in order to accomplish the substep. Each substep contain a fixed number of tasks.
  • Resources & examples: Provides links to resources including spreadsheets, guidance documents, templates to fill out, or weblinks to helpful websites with additional information.
  • Next level: Takes you to the same substep in the next level up

For example, Step 4 of Level 1 of the eGuide contains two substeps:
Level 1: Foundational Energy Management
Step 4: Measure and Check Results
Step 4.1: Measure, monitor, and analyze performance metrics
Task 4.1.1: Monitor and analyze energy consumption
Task 4.1.2: Check action plan progress
Task 4.1.3: Check action plan effectiveness
Step 4.2: Respond to deviation in energy performance
Task 4.2.1: Check for and make needed mid-course corrections to action plans

As shown above, contained within Step 4.1 are three specific tasks that need to be completed, while within Step 4.2 is only one task that needs to be completed. In contrast, Step 4 in Level 2 contains five substeps, each with its own tasks to complete. And Step 4 in Level 3 contains three substeps, each with its own tasks to complete.

You can take a look at all the eGuide steps and substeps across Levels 1, 2, and 3 by clicking here.

Navigating the eGuide

The eGuide has been designed for easy navigation between levels, steps, and substeps:

  • With one click, you can move from one level to the next level by hitting the “Next Level” button—this will take you to the corresponding substep for the next, more advanced, level of eGuide guidance.
  • Moving from one substep to the next is easily done by hitting next or previous substep buttons, numbered according to your progress through the tool, in the top left-hand corner of the substep page.

Tracking Your Team’s Progress

The eGuide Status Tracker is where you can track your team’s progress as you work through the eGuide steps and tasks. Check off completed tasks in each substep’s “How to do it” section; both complete and incomplete tasks are summarized in the Status Tracker, reachable by clicking the “Status Tracker” link in the top navigation. Your progress will be broken down by level, step, substep, and task. You will be able to quantify your progress as a percentage of total available tasks, providing a quick dashboard or downloadable report for your management to see your successes.