Member Article

The Final Countdown: 12 months to go to ESOS deadline

In exactly one year from now (5 December 2019), it’s the final deadline for the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS).

By this critical date, the thousands of businesses required to comply with ESOS phase two, must have completed the following actions:

1. Select and appoint an ESOS Lead Assessor, who is legally required to approve your final audit. You may also want to use their expert support throughout the compliance process.

2. Collect, verify and record 12 continuous months of accurate business-wide energy consumption data, including buildings, processes and transport activities. This 12-month period must include 31 December 2018.

3. Use this information to identify areas of significant energy consumption to be assessed for energy saving opportunities.

4. Complete your audits and get sign off from your Lead Assessor

5. Present the ESOS findings to your senior management and gain the legally required Director sign off . This also provides an opportunity to discuss how you might implement the proposed energy saving opportunities

6. Make your final ESOS submission to the regulator by the final deadline of 5 December 2019.

Who is eligible?

ESOS applies to large, mainly private sector organisations (with more than 250 employees, or a turnover of more than 50 million Euros and a total balance sheet asset value of more than 43 million Euros). Any business that qualified for ESOS Phase One is likely to qualify again, but must use fresh data.

3 reasons why you should fast-track your ESOS compliance

There are three powerful reasons why delaying on ESOS is a bad business decision:

1. Collating all the complex data is not a quick job Gathering the required business-wide energy information is a time consuming process. You’ll need to check the original information sources, such as meter readings, delivery notes, mileage logs and supplier invoices, which requires time, perseverance and patience. Timely action also means that any inevitable data gaps or inaccuracies can be remedied and all information verified.

2. Your ESOS Lead Assessors may be unavailable The compliance process must be verified by an ESOS Lead Assessor and you may struggle to find one if you’re on the last minute. You may also need to pay premium rates for the short deadline. These problems occurred in the phase one compliance cycle, when limited availability of assessors caused last-minute bottlenecks and non-compliance issues for many participants. Act now to avoid fines for non-compliance and the reputational damage from breaching environmental legislation.

3. You could miss out on energy cost savings The biggest benefit of speedy ESOS completion is that it gives you more time to implement the recommended energy efficiency opportunities. From more than 150 ESOS audits completed by Inprova Energy assessors in phase one, we identified opportunities to reduce total energy consumption by 5 to 20%. Implementing these recommended actions could, therefore, deliver up to £20 cash back on every hundred pounds spent on energy. At a time of rising energy costs, it is essential that businesses exploit energy efficiency opportunities to tackle cost pressures.

Many ESOS participants will also be eligible for the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) scheme, scheduled to start on 1 April 2019. This will require companies to report on the energy efficiency actions they have undertaken during the financial year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Inprova Energy .