“If you haven’t started getting data together for ESOS Phase 2, and you know you qualify, now is the time to start.”
These are the words of Mike Denbigh, Senior Advisor – Environmental Business at the Environment Agency when he spoke at ESTA’s IECg ‘Energy – Changing Times’ event. At this event, Mike shared with delegates the latest updates about Phase 2 of the Energy Savings Opportunities Scheme (ESOS).
What is ESOS?
The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) is a mandatory energy assessment scheme that runs in four year phases. It requires complying organisations to measure total energy consumption and carry out energy audits which highlight cost-effective energy saving recommendations. The audit must take account of at least one year’s energy data and management.
Do you qualify?
If you’re a company with either of the following you do.
– 250 employees people or more
– Annual turnover equal to or exceeding €50,000,000 (£38,937,777) and a balance sheet of €43,000,000 (£33,486,489) or more.
– An overseas company with a UK registered establishment with 250 or more UK employees (paying income tax in the UK).
What are the deadlines?
– The qualification date for compliance is December 31st 2018.
– The deadline for complying with Phase 2 and notifying the Environment Agency is December 5th 2019.
– This data can be captured from any time between December 6th 2015 and December 5th 2019.
What happens if you don’t comply?
Non-compliances may result in being published on the Environment Agency’s website or issued a fixed penalty fine. In Phase 1, 15 civil penalties were issued.
Mike outlined some of non-compliances that were identified in Phase 1. These included the sampling approach not being representative of Significant Energy Consumption, energy audits not meeting the minimum criteria stated in regulations and guidance, and missing transport consumptions, where transport constituted significant proportion of the total energy consumption.
Failure to submit the compliance assessments on time can also incur a penalty, and one key takeaway from Mike’s presentation was that whereas some deadline extensions were allowed in Phase 1, this will not be the case in Phase 2.
Get started now
Getting started now with planning for ESOS Phase 2 compliance helps you to avoid the last minute rush that was experienced for Phase 1. We also encourage you to see ESOS not as more red tape, but as a real opportunity to get energy efficiency on the boardroom agenda and reduce the amount spent on energy to make financial savings. This will free-up money for investment in your core business and ultimately improve your bottom line. For instance, for one of our larger ESOS Phase 1 clients, we identified potential savings in excess of £350,000 per annum which equated to 17.5% of their total energy bill.
Swan has a Lead ESOS Auditor in the team, so if you’d like our help, get in touch.