The Environment Agency has announced that the extension to the ESOS deadline has almost expired. The final deadline is near.

They have now written to all companies that submitted an ‘Intent to Comply’ notification advising once again of the impending deadline. They re-iterate that the Notification of Compliance must be with them as soon as possible, and by the 15th April at the latest. This can only be done after you have carried out your ESOS audit and had this approved by a Lead Assessor. So if you are nearly there, then there is a little time to finish this process. If you haven’t started or have any uncertainty about ESOS, then it really is no exaggeration to say that you must ACT NOW.

So, the deadline for the first compliance period of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) has passed. It was 5th December 2015. This article describes what to do next for those that have, and those that have not.

If you are a ‘large’ company then you should be familiar with this mandatory energy assessment scheme, but if you need to you can check the ESOS criteria on our website to see whether or not it applies to you.

Different types of ESOS audit In cases where there are a large number of very similar buildings e.g. 200 shops, it may be useful to consider the level of detail of the audits within the sample. For example, you may want to undertake detailed audits of a small number of shops, and visit another few to carry out a higher level review. The small audit sample size will minimise the level of effort required by the auditor and visiting additional shops will allow both the auditor and Lead Assessor (if different) to satisfy themselves that the similarity of the shops is sufficient to justify the sample size. To assist organisations in the planning of their ESOS assessments, including how to select an appropriate sample size DECC (Dept. of Energy and Climate Change) have published a guidance document `Approaches to ESOS Audits’ which can be downloaded from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/approaches-to-esos-audits In our next newsletter we will discuss integrating your audit plan with your business strategy. ESOS Update: The EA (Environment Agency) have published a revised version (V2.0) of its guide `Complying with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme’, this document can be downloaded from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/comply-with-the-energy-savings-opportunity-scheme-esos

Not sure what to do to comly with ESOS? or do you just want an aide-memoire?

Download our free guide from: ESOS - http://axionenergysolutions.co.uk/assets/Esos_-_What_do_I_need_to_know.pdf

Site visit sample sizes

Many organisations own a range of similar operations, such as similar retail units or offices. It may not be necessary to visit every site and participants should choose an appropriate sample of their portfolio for audit.

ESOS Updates There have been some recent notifications from the Environment Agency (EA) concerning ESOS which we feel may be of interest to you. Environmental Agency have reissued their ESOS notification letters The Environmental Agency have reissued their ESOS notification to all organisations whom they believe may meet the minimum threshold for a mandatory ESOS assessment.

They appear to be a little concerned that only a small number (some commentators are suggesting that this may be as low as 20) of the estimated 10,000 companies who need to comply with ESOS have actually notified the EA through its web portal that they are compliant with ESOS.

Creating an audit plan

An audit plan ensures that all parties, including the Lead Assessor, the auditor(s) and the business being audited have a clear understanding and common expectation of the audits, including the format of the report and the information to be contained in it.