The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) requires most employers of a medium-size company and above to undertake a formal energy audit every four years, starting this December. With a transport element included, the Energy Institute explains how the scheme will impact on fleets

There are less than six months left for qualifying organisations to comply with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), and no one wants to be facing the potential penalty of up to £50,000 for failing to meet the deadline.
    
ESOS is the government’s response to meeting Article 8 of the EU’s Energy Services Directive. This means large companies with 250 or more employees, or with an annual turnover of more than £38,973,777 and a balance sheet of £33,486,489 will need to regularly audit their energy performance.

An estimated 14,000 businesses in the UK fall within the scope of ESOS and are legally obliged to comply with these requirements by December. The options of non-compliance and a potential fine of £50,000 or buying an energy audit and doing nothing with the results are bad choices, and our concern is they will be made without the knowledge of company boards and executives.

Compliance requires organisations to estimate their total energy consumption and audit the areas of most significance for a report which is signed off at company board level and lodged with the Environment Agency. Now that’s where compliance stops and good practice starts. Why? The clue is in the title – energy savings opportunity scheme. Because simply submitting the audit is not enough to benefit from ESOS – implementing the recommended energy measures is what will make a real difference: not only is it good for the bottom line, it’s good for the environment and demonstrates the socially responsible pledges companies can make, as well as the benefits that can be passed onto the customer.

Emissions from transport
ESOS participants are required to measure and audit fuel which they are supplied with and use in their own business. This means that if an organisation uses a contractor to undertake transport activities on its behalf, these operations will not be included in the organisation’s ESOS assessment. Fuel consumption data should be recorded and collated to measure the amount of energy consumed in transport activities within the UK.
    
Green fleet reviews or other transport energy management schemes are not considered an automatic route to compliance, but any audit work undertaken as part of these schemes during the compliance phase can be used for the purposes of ESOS.
    
Fuel consumption of company-owned or leased vehicles lies within the scheme. Fuel consumption within an organisation’s grey fleet (vehicles owned by private persons but used for work-related travel) will be included within ESOS only where the organisation makes payment to the vehicle owner for the use of the vehicle on business.

Guidance from the experts
The Energy Institute (EI) has produced a free briefing note which explains ESOS and what you need to do to comply with the scheme. This is in addition to the EI’s new ESOS toolkit which will help participants to collect their data, understand the requirements and choose the best route to compliance for the organisation. It will be valuable to anyone working towards ESOS compliance, whether as a lead assessor or by someone within a company preparing to appoint an assessor.

The toolkit provides an overview to ESOS, tools for collating energy data and conducting lifecycle cost analyses. The kit also provides standard templates for costings, audits and drawing up terms and conditions. Prices start at £99+VAT for EI members, and there is a short presentation available online providing a guide to using the toolkit.
    

To ensure UK businesses benefit from ESOS and energy efficiency, they should call upon experts with high levels of skills, knowledge and experience, focusing on making recommendations that can easily be put in place. As the leading professional membership body for the energy sector, the EI has over 40 years’ experience of supporting energy management professionals. To assist organisations with ESOS compliance, we run approved registers of lead assessors, who have all achieved chartered status.
    
The EI is making advice freely available from its experienced and highly skilled lead assessors who are recognised by the EI for their professionalism. Customers can get in touch with their queries and consultants will come back within five working days to provide up to 20 minutes of free advice. Working with an energy consultant will be a new experience for many companies, and can help them to identify potential energy saving opportunities and ensure that they are compliant with ESOS.
    
EI members have contributed to the development of ESOS both through the policy consultation process and directly via DECC’s Expert Advisory panel. The EI’s lead assessors are therefore well placed to provide relevant advice.
    
To date, the response to ESOS has been disappointingly slow. More than a mandatory scheme from the UK government, energy efficiency, when implemented, can generate huge savings for organisations – so make sure you are not too late in hiring the expertise required to reap the benefits of both complying with ESOS and running an energy efficient business.

Further information
www.energyinst.org