After a test run in 2018, EDA has now completed the first fully-fletched Defence Energy Managers’ Course (DEMC) in which participated a total of 17 students from eight EDA Member States. The course, one of the Agency’s most recent training and education activities, aims at increasing Armed Forces’ energy efficiency and reducing the military’s overall energy consumption through the introduction of defence-specific energy management systems based on the ISO 50001 standard.
The DEMC provided both theoretical and practical training to energy managers from Member States’ ground forces and air forces as well as navies. The course was launched in November 2018 and attended by personnel from the Armed Forces and/or Ministries of Defence from Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The course was split into five distinct modules: three classroom-type sessions and two more practical modules which, in total, lasted some 11 months. Participants increased their knowledge of the complexities of managing energy within a defence organisation (energy management systems were applied to different military installations, from air and naval bases to governmental facilities) and learned how to structure and implement efficient energy management systems. Throughout the course, students were supported by mentors and members of the European Defence Energy Network (EDEN) which also allowed them to have permanent access to the networks’ on-line resources.
The successful completion of the first DEMC marks an important milestone in EDA’s efforts aimed to increase energy sustainability in defence sector and reduce the military’s environmental footprint, also building on the work done in the Consultation Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector (CFSEDSS) sponsored by the European Commission and the Agency’s own Energy and Environmental Working Group.
Two additional courses are currently underway; they will be completed by May 2020.
The whole DEMC project is run by EDA’s Industry, Synergies & Enablers Directorate (ISE) and delivered by GEN Europe and the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources & Savings (CRES).
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