Have you complied with ESOS Phase 2 yet?
The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), is a mandatory energy assessment scheme for businesses with the purpose of ensuring that UK organisations are operating in the most energy efficient manner as possible. By auditing businesses, within the buildings that they operate from and their transport usage, ESOS highlights areas for reducing energy. The scheme requires large companies to produce detailed reports on the energy use and efficiency of their organisation every four years. But why should companies in the UK comply with ESOS?
Time is running out – there’s just 3 weeks left to file your report or else you will face a penalty!
Who does ESOS apply to?
Only large businesses, i.e. those with less than 250 employees or a turnover of more than €50 million (£44,845,000) or a balance sheet total of €43 million (£38,566,700) or more. A company must carry out an ESOS assessment – even if it is not a ‘large undertaking’ – if it is part of a corporate group with another UK-based company which does meet the ESOS guidelines. It is estimated that the scheme will affect around 10,000 organisations in the UK.
How does a business comply with ESOS?
Under the guidelines of ESOS, any qualifying business must carry out an audit of 90% of its total energy usage for a 12 month period. Businesses are also required to identify opportunities for efficiency and are also encouraged to implement energy efficiency measures and produce annual reports, despite this not yet being a mandatory requirement.
How will ESOS benefit your business?
What is different about ESOS in comparison to other mandatory government schemes is that it has actually been designed to help business owners. As well as helping to raise awareness of the issues surrounding excessive energy consumption, ESOS also helps business owners to lower their energy bills, and therefore cut costs, and reduce their carbon footprint. So effectively, those partaking in the scheme will see an improvement in business margins and help the planet at the same time.
How will the audit be conducted?
To comply with ESOS, a business must appoint a lead assessor to carry out and review the energy audit and overall assessment. The audit must be conducted by a qualified assessor approved by a professional body. At Enistic, we are a Tier 1 provider and UK market-leaders in ESOS and SECR compliance. The assessment will take into account energy partly covered by ISO 50001, Display Energy Certificates or Green Deal assessments.
If you are fully covered by ISO 50001 then you won’t need to carry out a full assessment, you just need to notify the Environment Agency that this is the case. You will still need to carry out an ESOS assessment if you are only partially covered.
How close is the deadline? – You’ve got 3 weeks to comply!
The initial December 2015 deadline of ESOS has passed, however, all businesses involved in Phase 1 are required to carry out assessments every 4 years in order to comply. ESOS is now in Phase 2, and the dates are as follows:
Phase Qualification Date 4 Year Compliance Phase Compliance Date
Phase 1 31st December ‘14 6th December ‘11 – 5th December 5th December ‘15
‘15
Phase 2 31st December ‘18 6th December ‘15 – 5th December 5th December ‘19
‘19
Phase 3 31st December ‘22 6th December ‘19 – 5th December 5th December ‘23
‘23
How can Enistic help?
At Enistic, our fully automated reporting system ensures you save time and money. Our seamless energy accounting system, Plato, allows you to access your data from anywhere in the world.
We believe in making the most out of SECR and ESOS, that’s why we suggest to each of our client’s comprehensive ways that they can save money – from our superb sub-metering to the installation of energy management systems based on ISO50001. By understanding how your business works, we’re able to provide you with information that actually adds value and saves money. To find out more, get in touch today.
Don’t delay – we boast a 100% compliance rate and have completed over 1000 successful audits! Avoid your fine and click here to comply.