ESOS – 100 days to go: Tips to fast track compliance
Qualifying businesses have 100 days to meet the 5th December 2019 compliance deadline for ESOS – the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme. That’s just 15 weeks, or 72 working days.
Is there still time to comply with ESOS?
According to government figures, companies spent an average of 15 days, or 3 working weeks on ESOS phase one. For complex, multi-site organisations it will almost certainly take longer, so it’s important to start now if you haven’t already.
With the deadline approaching, we asked our ESOS lead assessor colleagues at BiU for tips to speed up compliance:
1. Appoint a lead assessor now
Some companies choose to undertake their ESOS audits and overall assessment in-house, but at this stage we’d advise short cutting the learning curve and appointing an experienced lead assessor to take care of the whole process. They can help you streamline your efforts by putting together an audit timetable and by determining the most efficient sampling approach.
If you choose to do most of the ESOS work in-house, it still needs to be reviewed and signed off by a lead assessor. It’s important to engage with someone now: in phase one, around 2,800 organisations notified the Environment Agency that they would be late in reporting ESOS compliance: this was partly down to availability of qualified lead assessors.
2. Communicate with key departments
Data collection is the most time-consuming part of compliance, and ESOS requires consumption information from buildings, transport and processes. It’s likely you’ll need cooperation from various departments across the company, such as the fleet management team, so start engaging with colleagues now to let them know what data you need. This allows time to deal with any unforeseen hurdles or gaps in data that may crop up.
Consumption must be measured over a 12-month continuous period that includes 31 December 2018.
3. Book a slot in director diaries
Your ESOS assessment needs to be signed off by a board level director, who should confirm that they have reviewed the report recommendations and that the organisation is within the scope of the scheme. Make sure you have some time booked in to busy diaries for this review to take place. Ideally, you would be presenting the findings at your company’s next board meeting: this is an ideal opportunity to make the case for energy efficiency upgrades across your sites.
The Energy Advice Hub is powered by BiU, the UK’s leading energy and utility consultancy. Our team of qualified ESOS lead assessors are helping companies go beyond simple compliance, and achieve real value from the ESOS process. If you’d like advice on ESOS, give our team a call on 01253 785409 or email energy-hub@biu.com.