With the increasing importance of sustainability and the corresponding regulations, the reduction of energy consumption, the avoidance of energy waste, and the role of energy management have increased in companies. For large organisations, reports about successful implementations of energy management systems (EnMS) are available, but the situation for small and mediumsized enterprises regarding EnMS is not well-researched. The main objective of the research presented in this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the state of research and the state of practice in energy management of SME as a foundation for future research in the field. The main contributions of this paper are (1) the results of a survey among SMEs confirming the relevance of energy management and a lack of knowledge how to implement energy management systems, (2) the results of a systematic literature study structuring the existing work in the field of energy management for SME, and (3) the outline of a proposal how to support SME in energy management.