TEAM’s Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) Diary
Key points to remember and the role of an ESOS Lead Assessor
Ellen Salazar TEAM’s ESOS Lead Assessor
ESOS Diary Date: 19 Jan 2015
I’m starting a diary to record my experiences to date with ESOS! Since becoming an accredited Lead Assessor via CIBSE, I’ve been up and down the country talking to companies large and small about the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme.
Key points to remember for ESOS
The key things to remember are: Companies must comply with ESOS if they have 250 employees or more, or if they have fewer employees but have BOTH a turnover greater than €50 million AND an annual balance sheet more than €43 million.
I’m often asked about non-profits which are partially owned by a public sector body. If the entire business is subject to the Public Contracts Regulations, then they are exempt! Usually their legal department can tell them whether they are subject to this or not. For companies that qualify, there is no need to register in advance, and there will be no official notification that they must comply with ESOS!
ESOS covers energy use relating to buildings, transport, and any industrial processes, so unless the company already has ISO 50001 certification covering all these areas of their business, then they will need an ESOS Lead Assessor to sign off their submission to the Environment Agency.
The role of an ESOS Lead Assessor
The role of the ESOS Lead Assessor is varied, as the scheme is flexible to allow businesses to comply in the most common-sense manner. Basically the ESOS Lead Assessor will review and sign off energy data (from buildings, transport and industrial processes) as well as the site audit reports which are required.
There are rules as to how and what must be done but in a nut shell, in terms of the data, as long as it’s a year’s worth of energy data, and it includes the 31st of Dec 2014 qualification date, then it can be used for ESOS reporting. Additionally, the survey reports can be from any time between 6th December 2011 and 5th December 2015. So if you’ve done any sort of energy surveys in this time period, then these potentially can be included in your Evidence Pack.
Once the lead assessor has signed it all off, it must be signed off by a company director or equivalent (and it needs 2 company directors if the company uses an in-house ESOS Lead Assessor). Then it is the company that must make the submission to the Environment Agency by the 5th of December 2015. The Lead Assessor should provide a submission document of some kind, detailing exactly the information that the company is required to submit. This is in addition to the Evidence Pack, which the company should keep as their audit trail.
Find out more from TEAM
TEAM’s ESOS certified consultants can help your organisation through all stages of the ESOS submission process, from energy surveys to preparing the submission document. To discover why you should choose team to help with your ESOS submission by click here.