Are You Ready for ESOS?
Nearly three quarters of businesses (73%) have not started their mandatory energy audits to comply with the new ESOS legislation by the deadline of 5 December 2015.
According to a new poll, conducted by Energy Live News, 61% of businesses surveyed have not yet appointed a lead assessor, with a minority of only 27% of businesses already ESOS compliant.
Under the new initiative large organisations in the UK* need to comply with the Regulations by measuring and reporting on energy use for a full 12 months across their sites or risk heavy fines of up to £50,000 plus extra charges of £500 per day (for up to 80 days).
The survey reported that 52% of organisations are citing lack of time and resources as the biggest barrier and 27% admitting identifying and collating data as the main challenge to complying with the scheme.
Darryl Mattocks, Managing Director of Enistic, energy management specialists, commented: “We are working hard to help organisations meet their ESOS obligations with as little pain as possible. Our Easy ESOS scheme is designed to take the pressure off. Starting with a free, no obligation scoping meeting, we can discuss the organisations energy consumption, available data, building portfolio, any industrial processes and transport in order to produce a tailored approach, time frame and fixed price for compliance.”
The poll also found that over half of the businesses surveyed have not yet appointed a lead assessor. This is amid concerns around supply and demand – with fewer than 500 lead assessors available for over 10,000 businesses who fall within ESOS.
Darryl Mattocks said: “The pressure on the limited number of lead assessors available to work on ESOS means that organisations really shouldn’t wait to act. The months from now until 5 December will fly by.”
According to the government, businesses could save £1.9 billion on energy bills, citing calculations that investing £15,000 a year on energy efficiency measures as recommended by the assessment could lead to bill savings of more than £56,000 per year.
Darryl commented “A monitoring and targeting campaign can identify significant energy savings for organisations averaging 28% but in some cases up to 45%. So the work in complying with the Regulations can bring opportunities to make some real cost savings.”