Important lessons learnt from the ESOS Phase 1 audit

An important date to be aware of for your ESOS phase 2 audit is 31 December 2018. This date must be included in your 12 months’ worth of energy data.

So, if you start Phase 2 now, this date will be included, and you will reduce the risk of missing deadlines and you will avoid fines.

One of TEAM’s Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme’s lead assessors, Justine Grant, has some learnings from the ESOS phase 1 to share to help you get off to a good start.

It’s helpful to store all related documents together electronically to include:

• The ESOS report including a contents page, an ESOS qualification assessment with an organisation structure diagram and the rationale for the sampling approach for the audits.
• Clear identification of the Total Energy Consumption (TEC) and Significant Areas of Energy (SEC) for the stated period and show as percentages, for example:
  
  Natural gas consumption: 51.0%
  
  Electricity consumption: 41.4%
  
  Transport energy consumption: 5.7%
  
  Propane consumption: 1.9%
• Conversion factors for fuel, if applicable, remember to state the factor used AND reference the source.
• Evidence of energy data used, spreadsheet or report BUT include scanned copies of the bills and primary data for transport energy to the evidence pack (i.e. the fuel consumption spreadsheets provided by the fuel card provider); all in a separate folder, any auditor will want to see everything.
• An auditor will want to see energy profiling, so carry this out if there is suitable metering.
• A scanned copy of the ESOS report with the Board Director sign off, include the whole document, and consider having the Director initial each page.

If benchmarking is not possible due to a lack of sub-metering for a building on a campus, then site level benchmarking would be acceptable.

When the guidance gives an example of how you could present ESOS assessment findings (see A.7.2 of Complying with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme), which is not a template and does not need to be used, understand that it is a template and it does need to be used. Mainly because any ESOS Evidence Pack will be audited against the only guidance available.

If you need help or guidance regarding your ESOS audit, contact us.

Contact us