As part of the Environment Agencies commitment to keep ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme stakeholders informed of the regulatory and procedural process, they have published their first newsletter for 2018.
The Newsletter published jointly by the Environment Agencies for the UK, namely, the Environment Agency (England), Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, covers two current topical issues:
Phase 2 Qualification and Compliance
The ESOS Phase 2 covers the period from the end of Phase 1 (31 December 2015) to the Compliance Deadline for Phase 2 (31 December 2019).
Phase 2 Participants are advised that they can start on their Phase 2 Energy Assessments ahead of the Qualification Date (31st December 2018).
Whilst ESOS Obligated Organisations will not be able to complete their assessment of Total Energy Consumption (TEC) as this has to include the qualification date of 31 December 2018, they can start their energy audit, if the following two conditions are met:
- They expect to qualify for Phase 2, and;
- They know that an energy supply will be included in your significant energy consumption (SEC).
As under Phase 1, the energy audit needs to have at least one year’s energy measurement, but that this can be taken from any time between 6 December 2015 and 5 December 2019.
The energy audit can use data that has been collected at any time during this period provided that the audit itself is carried out no later than 24 months after the data period and the data has not already been used for an audit in Phase 1.
SECR legislation
New legislation entitled Simplified Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) has already been through a consultation exercise that ended on 1 January 2018, which is part of a package of changes announced in the March 2016 budget aimed to reduce the administrative burdens of the current overlapping suite of reporting requirements while further incentivizing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
SECR will deliver a simpler reporting requirement than the current Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) energy efficiency scheme and align with existing reporting mechanisms such as mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by listed companies.
It is anticipated that SECR will be introduced from April 2019 to coincide with the end of the current CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.
One thing is clear is that SECR will not be replacing the Energy Savings Opportunity
Scheme (ESOS). ESOS will continue separately with the planned future phases.
Whilst, ESOS and SECR are separate schemes, defined through separate legislation,
obligated organisations can use the information from ESOS to, for example, support energy and emissions reporting and narrative on energy efficiency action taken in their annual reports.
If you are looking for someone to guide you through your ESOS compliance obligations, I have considerable experience as a qualified IEMA ESOS Lead Energy Assessor & welcome your early contact.
In the meantime, a copy of the ESOS Newsletter can be downloaded here
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