Our Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) team has already started work on ESOS audits for a wide variety of organisations ranging from the legal, financial and engineering sectors to charitable and research institutions. To try and assist those who are thinking about how to structure and plan their own ESOS compliance, we have put together some key tips for making ESOS easier.
1. Select your audit period in line with your most ‘hard to gather’ data
There are often portions of data that are the most difficult to get or have only limited quality or availability. For many customers this can relate to buildings where they are tenants and therefore not in control of this data. At TEAM we have taken the approach to try and acquire this data primarily and then set the data period for ESOS in accordance to what is available for this ‘difficult’ data. As long as the period includes the required 31 December 2018 date, you can set the period as accordingly and then the rest of your more easily accessible or higher quality data can fit in with this.
2. Make the most of your specialists
At TEAM we have a range of energy consultants who have particular areas of expertise and experience. Therefore, we try to maximise the use of this specialist knowledge by apportioning work as appropriate for these particular skills. So, if we have a customer with significant air conditioning usage, we ensure that our air conditioning specialist undertakes the on-site audits. Equally, if someone in your team is particularly experienced in data analysis, energy profiling and benchmarking then it makes sense to allocate ESOS work relating to these areas to them. This ensures an efficient and consistent approach to all the analysis, allowing full comparability across sites.
3. Share knowledge
Working in a team of consultants performing ESOS audits clearly makes the work easier. But, if you are completing your ESOS work alone, it is worth getting in touch with others who are also working on ESOS to share tips and knowledge. At TEAM we have regular catch ups to discuss ESOS work, consider any problems or barriers to progress and ensure we are providing a consistent service to all our customers.
These catch ups are invaluable in keeping up to date and have helped us to build a bank of knowledge, recommendations and structure to our ESOS work. So, seek out your ESOS buddies and start talking!
4. Use the tools you already have
Many organisations have software that can help them in the production of their data or analysis for ESOS, but perhaps aren’t aware or making use of this. Energy management software will often include reporting options which will report annual energy use, analyse historical data and benchmark such information. If you’re not sure what capabilities your software has, look it up online or get in touch with your provider to find out. This could save you significant time.
Equally, if you have Display Energy Certificates (DECs) for any of your buildings, even if you aren’t using the DEC compliance route, make sure you dig these out with their accompanying Recommendation Reports and include any information that is relevant within your ESOS report.
5. Get started!!
Even though the ultimate deadline may still seem far away (5th December 2019), ESOS is not a quick tick list exercise that can be achieved a week before the compliance deadline is due. It’s worth adding ESOS activities to your ‘to do’ list as a bit of work now should save you a lot of extra work at the last minute.
If you want to make ESOS a higher priority for your organisation, want advice about meeting your targets, or would like to connect with one of our Lead Assessors, contact us today.
To find out if your company qualifies, get in touch for a free assessment.
Read more ESOS blogs