Paper Title
Operational Challenges of ISO 50001 Energy Management System: A Sri Lankan Study

Abstract
This paper intends to investigate the challenges for effective operation of ISO 50001:2011 Energy Management System (EnMS) standard in Sri Lankan organisations. Initially, a thorough probing into the extant literature identified challengesISO 50001:2011 EnMS,based on which, an expert survey was conducted in order to study their applicability to Sri Lankan context. This was conducted among 05 professionals who are well qualified and experienced in the field of ISO 50001. The data collection of the expert surveywas conducted though semi structured interviews while data analysis was done by adopting manual content analysis. A subsequent semi-structured questionnaire survey was conducted among management representatives of ISO 50001 standard implemented orgnisations with the purpose of identifying the actual level of challenges faced by them. The data collection was limited only to 15 organisationsand the data analysis was done through Mean weighted rating system. The findings resulted in fourteen challenges faced by the Sri Lankan organisationsat present in operating ISO 50001 EnMS. Further, the study identified“difficulties in budget allocation”, “need for managing large number of documents”, “development of energy plans for new installations” and “non-availability of competent personnel internally” as the most significant challenges faced by the business organisations in Sri Lanka during the operational stage of ISO 50001 EnMS. Keywords - ISO 50001:2011 Energy Management System (EnMs), Operation, Challenges