How VDAB achieved full ISO 50001 compliance with a 24/7 Virtual Energy Manager
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Challenge
Static reporting in a world that demands continuous ISO 50001 control
Solution
A 24/7 Virtual Energy Manager built for ISO 50001
Results
VDAB is a public employment agency in Flanders, Belgium, supporting jobseekers, employers, and training providers across the region. Behind this mission sits a substantial real-estate footprint: a diverse portfolio of offices, training centres, and public buildings covering approximately 400,000 m² across 140 sites.
Energy management plays a strategic role in VDAB’s operations. Rising energy costs, public accountability, and long-term climate objectives require more than periodic reporting — they demand continuous control and optimisation.
This approach is further formalised in VDAB’s need to be ISO 50001-compliant, which was a key driver behind their decision to modernise how energy data is collected, analysed, and acted upon in real time.
We spoke with Alexander Daenen, Head of Environment and Energy at VDAB, who brings decades of experience in energy management across both the private (industrial) and public sectors.
He shared why VDAB launched a full rethink of its energy management approach, how the organisation evaluated the market, and what has changed since implementing Enersee across a complex portfolio of office buildings, educational campuses, and technical training facilities.
challenge
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When Alexander joined VDAB, energy tracking existed — but only at a very high level.
“At that time, we were mainly tracking ISO 14001 indicators on a monthly basis,” he explains. “That’s fine for reporting, but it doesn’t help you manage energy day to day.”
ISO 50001 requires a Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) cycle: defining baselines, monitoring performance, detecting deviations, and continuously improving. In practice, however, VDAB lacked the real-time visibility needed to make that cycle effective.
To close that gap, the team decided to move toward 15-minute real-time energy telemetry across the portfolio. This would allow them to detect inefficiencies early, validate corrective actions, and demonstrate continuous improvement — all core ISO 50001 principles.
However, existing energy management systems quickly showed their limits.
Many relied on static threshold alarms — fixed limits that didn’t account for context such as weather, seasonality, or occupancy. As a result, alerts were either irrelevant or ignored.
“You’d get alarms that made no sense,” Alexander says. “For example, summer HVAC loads triggering alarms because winter thresholds were being exceeded. That creates noise, not insight.”
When you need to get ISO 50001-certified, false alarms are more than an annoyance: they undermine trust, slow down corrective action, and make it harder to prove effective control during audits.
For a small central energy team overseeing hundreds of thousands of square metres, this approach was unsustainable. VDAB needed a system that could think, not just measure.
challenge
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VDAB launched a formal RFP to modernise its energy management stack. In total, 15 vendors were evaluated but, in the end, VDAB chose Enersee as its energy management software and intelligence layer.
Enersee now acts as VDAB’s 24/7 Virtual Energy Manager, continuously scanning data streams and surfacing only what truly matters. “Enersee is leaps and bounds ahead of what a legacy EMS system can do...It’s light years ahead”, explains Alexander.
One of the most valued capabilities is outside-hours energy usage detection — identifying buildings that consume energy when they shouldn’t, a key control mechanism for ISO 50001.
“That feature alone lets me sleep at night,” Alexander says. “If a building consumes energy when it shouldn’t, I know I’ll be informed.”
Enersee also enables portfolio-wide benchmarking, allowing VDAB to compare buildings against each other and against historical performance — a critical input for energy reviews and improvement actions under ISO 50001.
Alexander DAENEN
Head of Environment & Energy | Energy Manager ISO 50001
Tjeu Binnebeek is expert energieprestatie en binnenklimaat met meer dan vijftien jaar ervaring in het vertalen van energiedata naar concrete acties. Als Expert Energy Performance & Indoor Climate bij Agoria en bestuurslid bij Energent cv helpt hij organisaties energie- en duurzaamheidsregels zoals BACS om te zetten in praktische oplossingen die leiden tot efficiëntiewinsten en duurzame resultaten.
Alexander DAENEN
Head of Environment & Energy | Energy Manager ISO 50001
Tjeu Binnebeek is expert energieprestatie en binnenklimaat met meer dan vijftien jaar ervaring in het vertalen van energiedata naar concrete acties. Als Expert Energy Performance & Indoor Climate bij Agoria en bestuurslid bij Energent cv helpt hij organisaties energie- en duurzaamheidsregels zoals BACS om te zetten in praktische oplossingen die leiden tot efficiëntiewinsten en duurzame resultaten.
