Saikrishna Ganesan
Performance Services Inc. | Project Development Engineer
Speaker
Track B: Energy Services and Emerging Technologies
Session B2: Measurement & Verification
March 12, 2026 | 10:30 am - 11:00 am
ISO 50001 for ESPC: Using Maturity Modeling to Ensure Long-Term Savings in Public Sector Projects
| Recent ESPC projects in Texas K-12 districts and public entities reveal a persistent pattern: capital upgrades get funded and installed, but the way the organization plans, operates, and reviews energy use barely changes. Hardware is modernized, yet long-term savings and comfort still depend on a few motivated individuals instead of a defined energy management system.
This session uses those projects as a starting point to outline a different approach. It presents a methodology that brings ISO 50001-based Strategic Energy Management (SEM) principles directly into the ESPC lifecycle. The core idea is a Phase 0 Energy Management Maturity Assessment before the Investment Grade Audit (IGA), structured around a simple five-level Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model. The assessment surfaces gaps in policy, KPIs, data use, and O&M practices that create unmanaged risk for both the owner and the ESCO, independent of the specific equipment selected. Using real audit findings and project structures from Texas schools and municipalities, the presentation highlights recurring gaps that owners and ESCO teams struggle to address within traditional ESPC scopes. Against that backdrop, it shows where ISO 50001-style maturity modeling can be introduced to target those gaps: informing facility selection, defining organizational actions and training needs, and shaping M&V expectations. The result is a forward-looking ESPC model that delivers not only hardware, but also a practical roadmap for managing energy performance as an ongoing process. |
Speaker Bio
Saikrishna Ganesan is a Project Development Engineer at Performance Services, specializing in investment-grade energy, water, and wastewater audits and developing guaranteed energy savings performance contracts (ESPC). He has more than eleven years of experience in energy efficiency and strategic energy management.
His current work focuses on uncovering data-driven conservation opportunities for K-12, higher education, and government facilities, building clear cost-benefit cases, and shaping integrated solutions that improve performance, reliability, and sustainability at the whole-facility level.
Prior to joining Performance Services, Sai spent seven years with Graphet Data Mining, where he specialized in developing strategic energy management frameworks that reshaped energy management practices while identifying measurable, high-impact conservation strategies for large-scale commercial and industrial customers across the Midwest and central United States.
He is a certified facilitator for Envinta’s One2Five® energy management program, aligned with ISO 50001 strategic energy management initiatives. Sai holds a Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and is a Certified Energy Manager. He is an invited speaker and guest lecturer on topics including advanced HVAC controls, applied data analysis for building energy efficiency, and strategic energy management. His practice centers on systems-based energy management rooted in rigorous engineering and real-world operational understanding.