Tuesday 31st of May 2022 | Posted In: Use and Manage

Are you ready for ESOS Phase 3?

If you have more than 250 UK employees or an annual turnover exceeding €50 million and a balance sheet total exceeding €43 million it is time to start planning how you will comply with the Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme (ESOS) regulations. Fines for non-compliance can be up to £90,000.

What is ESOS?

ESOS is a mandatory energy assessment scheme for organisations in the UK that meet the qualification criteria. Qualifying organisations must carry out ESOS assessments every four years. These assessments are audits of the energy used by their buildings, industrial processes, and transport to identify cost-effective energy-saving measures. The third phase of the scheme must be completed by 5th December 2023.

So you are in ESOS – what next?

Well if your organisation’s energy use is fully covered by ISO 50001 you do not need to carry an ESOS assessment, you will just need to notify your compliance with this standard to the Environment Agency. If this isn’t the case, you will need to carry out an ESOS assessment which requires the following:

  1. Appoint a lead assessor:
    • To carry out and oversee or review your energy audits and overall ESOS assessment.
  2. Calculate your total energy consumption:
    • The energy used in 12 months by your organisation, including the energy consumed by buildings, industrial processes and transport – this can be any 12 month period but must include 31 December 2018.
  3. Identify and audit your areas of significant energy consumption:
    • The energy used by your organisation that accounts for at least 90% of your total energy consumption needs to be assessed and audited in line with the ESOS guidance.
  4. Notify the Environment Agency:
  5. Keep records:
    • You need to keep records of how you have complied with ESOS in an evidence pack. The EA do carry out randomly selected sites for audit.

Time is of the essence as starting the process now will make complying with the deadline much easier. So we encourage you to act now to ensure you aren’t caught out and make sure you are compliant by the deadline.

Here at NFU Energy our team of engineers and data analysts  are ready to help by carrying out ESOS compliant energy audits, acting as a Lead Assessor (i.e. reviewing energy audits). Give the team a call on 024 7669 6512 to find out more.