Member Article

ESOS Compliance - are you on the list?

Stop what you’re doing and start thinking about what you aren’t! ESOS has been the buzz word for energy legislation over the last twelve months. Whilst we have seen some businesses take this opportunity very seriously (with great results in the pipeline), there have been many that have been quite happy to sit back and take the ‘wait and see’ approach…

The Environment Agency (EA) has now published a list of compliant organisations – a mandatory requirement under the scheme. Those 5939 firms who complied by the 29th January are listed on the EA website, including their company name and date of compliance. Whilst commercially sensitive information is hidden, the EA has published details such as whether firms had 12 months’ of energy consumption data to use during their audits and analysis.

The EA has not published a list of non-compliant firms but that doesn’t mean enforcement action isn’t underway – quite the opposite in fact.

Not featured on the ’Compliant’ list? What you should do

Begin compliance activities as soon as you can. As an energy consultancy supporting organisations in meeting ESOS compliance requirements, we urge you to take action. ESOS is not an overnight process and lead assessors’ schedules will be filling up as businesses begin to realise what the EA enforcement plans will mean for them.

As is often the case, businesses might choose to test the water when it comes to compliance enforcement, before taking environmental regulations seriously. However, on this occasion you don’t need a crystal ball to realise that the clamp down on non-compliant organisations is imminent. ESOS represents a new wave of energy policy, put in place to ensure that businesses become more conscious of their energy consumption and that they take measures to ensure ongoing efficiency …..the question of enforcement is more likely to be a case of when, not if.

From our recent discussions with the scheme administrator, it appears that the EA as governor of the scheme, is gearing up for the ‘clamping down’ on non-compliance. Any organisation who has yet to register themselves as ESOS compliant has until the 15th April to do so before the EA start their action process.

Following the statutory 5th December 2015 compliance deadline, the EA gave organisations the opportunity to engage with them, via the Intent to Comply portal, about their compliance activity.

However, as outlined by the EA, “completion of the Intent to Comply Late Notification did not confirm or grant an extension to the deadline…Organisations that do not finalise their ESOS assessment and submit their Compliance Notification to us by 15th April 2016 will be subject to the approach outlined within our recent communications.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Energy Team (UK) Limited .