ESOS Consultancy Services

If you have a certified ISO 50001 energy management system that’s certified by an accredited certification body and covers all your energy supplies as included under ESOS (for the whole corporate group in the UK), this counts as your ESOS audit, you only need to carry out limited additional actions and you do not need to use a lead assessor to review your compliance. To be compliant, the certification must remain valid at the compliance date. 

If you are using ISO 50001 as one of your routes to compliance, then the energy management system must be certified by one of the following: 

• a United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited certification body 
• a body accredited by another EU member state’s national accreditation body 
• a body accredited by a body which is a member of the International Accreditation Forum 

You are still required to: 

• calculate your total energy consumption and energy intensity ratios  
• calculate your energy savings since the previous ESOS compliance date, complete an ESOS report and share information about your ESOS compliance with other group undertakings  
• get a board level director to confirm that they have reviewed findings of your ISO 50001 certification, the organisation is compliant and the information which is going to be entered in the compliance notification is correct 
• submit a compliance notification to the Environment Agency which specifies that this is how you are compliant with ESOS 
• following the compliance notification, complete an action plan and subsequent progress updates  
• keep some evidence in an evidence pack 

A number of these actions would be included in an ISO 50001 management system and we can work with you to ensure your management system aligns to these reporting requirements. 

You can also consider implementing ISO 50001 as a route to compliance for the future and to demonstrate your ongoing energy management beyond regulatory compliance with ongoing review of improvements and cost savings and supporting the annual action plan and progress updates. Teamwork can support you with this. 

To achieve ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme) compliance you must carry out an ESOS Assessment. This involves: 

• measuring your total energy consumption 
• identifying areas of significant energy consumption 
• calculating energy intensity ratios  
• ensuring areas of significant energy consumption are covered by a route to compliance 
• appointing a lead assessor 
• getting one or more board level directors to review the findings of the assessment 
• making a notification of ESOS compliance online 
• completing ESOS action plans and ESOS annual progress updates 

For an ESOS Assessment you need to appoint a lead assessor to carry out and oversee or review your energy audits and overall ESOS assessment. Lead assessors must be members of an approved professional body register. The report must be signed off by a Director. 

If you qualify for ESOS and your organisation is fully covered by  ISO 50001,  you only need to carry out limited additional actions and you do not need to carry out an ESOS assessment. You do need to notify the Environment Agency that you’re compliant with ESOS and provide a submission with limited information. 

All companies qualifying must use the online notification system to notify the Environment Agency that you are ESOS compliant and for the action plan and progress updates. The Environment Agency collates the notifications from all participants on behalf of all the other regulators and from Phase 3 onwards will publish the information submitted through the compliance notification system within 6 months of the compliance date for the period to which the information relates, apart from personal or commercially sensitive details and feedback. 

In your online notification for compliance, you will be asked for details about: 

• the participant, contact details for the responsible undertaking, individuals who can be contacted about your ESOS compliance and directors who reviewed the ESOS assessment findings. 
• any aggregation or disaggregation of group members 
• what proportion of your total energy consumption is covered by each compliance route 
• energy consumption and intensity ratios 
• energy saving opportunities  
• energy savings achieved 
• lead assessor details

The Environment Agency (EA) has strengthened its penalties for non-compliance with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) as the scheme enters its third phase. Here are some key penalties for non-compliance:

Failure to Notify: An initial penalty of up to £5,000, plus a daily penalty of up to £500 for each working day the organisation remains in breach.
Failure to Maintain Records: An initial penalty of up to £5,000, plus costs incurred by the compliance body to confirm compliance.
Failure to Undertake an Energy Audit: An initial penalty of up to £50,000, plus a daily penalty of up to £500 for each working day the organisation remains in breach.
Failure to Comply with an Enforcement/Penalty Notice: An initial penalty of up to £5,000, plus a daily penalty of up to £500.
False or Misleading Statement: A penalty of up to £50,000.