Following a directive from the EU, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has introduced the new Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS). It can benefit your company so it's important to understand how it can affect your business.
What exactly is ESOS?
The British Government established ESOS in order to implement the EU Energy Efficiency Directive, which requires all member states to form effective energy efficiency policies.
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As part of an ESOS assessment, businesses are required to calculate their total energy consumption and identify the activities that account for their significant energy use. They will also have to appoint a lead assessor, either internally or externally, to ensure ESOS compliance and keep records.
Does ESOS affect me?
ESOS only affects what the regulations describe as "large undertakings". These are businesses that employee 250 or more people, or have an annual turnover greater than €50m and an annual balance sheet in excess of €43m.
OK, so it affects me – what next?
It is important that all large undertakings comply with ESOS. To become compliant, these businesses must carry out an ESOS assessment by 5th December and then every four years, or face fines of up to £50,000. Additional fines can be added on for persistent non-compliance and these will be charged on a daily basis. The process for completing the ESOS compliance can take up to 12 weeks, so companies are being prompted to act now.
What's involved in an ESOS assessment?
The first stage is to calculate your total energy consumption and identify the main areas of energy consumption in your business. You will also need to appoint a lead assessor, such as The Carbon Trust, to carry out energy audits. You will also need to notify the Environment Agency of your activities, and keep records of your company's compliance in an evidence pack.
Is help available?
Yes. Through Matrix, E.ON’s specialist energy efficiency company have partnered with The Carbon Trust to help businesses become ESOS compliant as painlessly as possible – regardless of whether they are an E.ON customer.
As independent energy experts, The Carbon Trust will carry out detailed energy audits as part of the ESOS assessment. Energy audits will include site visits and will be based on 12 months' verifiable data.
The audits will focus on analysis of energy consumption and efficiency. This must be done using energy consumption profiling, which simply breaks down the many different ways in which a business uses energy.
The audits will also include recommendations to save energy where possible, which should be both reasonable and cost-effective. However, there is no requirement that the measures should be implemented.
What will E.ON do?
Once the audit has been completed, E.ON can work with your business to help deliver the efficiency recommendations that would most help your organisation.
Click here for more information about ESOS from E.ON
