What do ESOS lead assessors do?

Your lead assessor must review your ESOS assessment to consider whether it meets the requirements of the scheme.

This will involve;

  • reviewing the calculation of total energy consumption.
  • reviewing the determination of the assets and activities in your significant energy consumption (at least 90% of the total energy consumption).
  • confirming that the necessary certifications and evidence exist for any alternative routes to compliance.
  • reviewing that the audits undertaken meet the minimum criteria for ESOS.

Your lead assessor can either:

  • carry out your ESOS assessment and audits themselves.
  • check that the assessment and audits done by people who aren’t lead assessors meet the requirements.

Their role in the ESOS audits could involve undertaking, advising on, or reviewing the following activities:

  • determining energy use profiles.
  • calculating energy/cost savings of measures identified. Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is the recommended calculation method as Simple Payback Period (SPP) is deemed to be too crude and less likely to stimulate investment.
  • identifying energy saving opportunities.
  • presenting audit recommendations.
  • developing a process for how new audits should be done.
  • developing a sampling approach.
  • developing an audit timetable.
  • determining the number of site visits required.
  • pulling together data for the ESOS evidence pack – this is an information pack that shows how you carried out the assessment and audit.

All decisions made on these activities (such as the sampling approach and audit methodology etc.) must be clearly stated and the rationale explained in the evidence pack and summary report.

Alternatively, other individuals can undertake these activities and the lead assessor can review them.

Lead Assessors must be members of an approved professional body register. The list of approved registers can be found here.