ESOS Explained

We are qualified as ‘ESOS Lead Assessors’ for the UK Government’s new Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS).

ESOS is the UK Government’s response to the European Union’s Energy Efficiency Directive[i] which came into effect in December 2012. The scheme requires large companies to produce detailed reports on the energy use and efficiency of their organisation every four years. The assessments are based on Transportation, Buildings and Manufacturing energy / fuels use.

ESOS applies to any company which is classified as a ‘large undertaking’; with more than 250 employees or a turnover of more than €50m and a balance sheet exceeding €43m. The business qualifies if it meets the criteria on 31 December 2014. Only accredited Lead assessors will carry out an energy audit, paid for by the business.

Comply or non-compliance with ESOS

In order to comply with ESOS, businesses must produce their first ESOS environmental audit report by 5 December, 2015 ‘not very long considering the amount of work involved’.

Failure to correctly comply with the scheme leads to fines of up to £50,000 and plus additional fine of £500 per day for a maximum of 80 days or until compliance has been demonstrated for each company. Non-complying companies will also be named and shamed on the Environmental Agency’s website. This is not good for corporate social responsibility or pension funds.

The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC)

DECC have announced the following… “The Environment Agency sent over 13,000 letters to a named director at organisations which they believe may qualify for ESOS raising awareness of the scheme, highlighting the compliance deadline of 5 December 2015 and encouraging them to start taking steps to comply. ‘May be worth checking if your business or if your Client has received a letter from the Environment Agency?’

Impact

The Carbon Trust estimates a minimum of 7,300 enterprises in the UK will be affected by ESOS. This covers more than 200,000 buildings and 10,000 industrial plants and accounts for 35% of total UK consumption.

Awareness

A recent survey carried out by npower Business Solutions[ii], conducted on more than 100 decision-makers at manufacturing businesses across the UK, revealed that 49% are unaware of the ESOS scheme, while 45% are unprepared for the first of the Government’s assessments which are due by December 2015.

What does the Government want to achieve?

DECC and Carbon Trust estimate that, with a conservative 6% average energy saving, the UK could save 3TWh per year – enough to power 160,000 homes. This will contribute to meeting the EU’s 20% energy reduction target by 2020.

The Carbon Trust has als[i]o recently reported that, by making efficiency savings, large businesses could save 15% on energy bills and it is ‘not uncommon’ for this to rise to 25%.

For more information please do contact our ‘CIBSE ESOS Lead Assessor’ Robert Corbyn MRICS at robert.corbyn@LCEA.co.uk
[i] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:315:0001:0056:EN:PDF
[ii] https://www.npowermediacentre.com/releases/ReleaseDetailPage.aspx?releaseId=5156