How ESOS can help you get ahead with SECR

You probably know all about ESOS, and you may feel that even now, with 15 months until the next deadline, there’s still no rush to get started with Phase 2. We disagree. Rather than put off compliance until the bitter end, we recommend getting ahead of the curve to avoid any bottleneck in resources later on.

The ESOS Phase 2 compliance deadline is 5 December 2019, however, the qualification date is 31 December this year. This means that if you know your business will fit the criteria, you can start some compliance activities now.

ESOS applies to large organisations, classified as those with:

• More than 250 employees or;
• A turnover of more than €50,000,000 and an annual balance sheet total of more than €43,000,000 or;
• Part of a corporate group containing a large enterprise.

It’s time to get started

In their latest ESOS newsletter, the Environment Agency (EA) emphasised that businesses can start audit work now. They state that although you won’t be able to complete the assessment of your Total Energy Consumption (TEC), as this has to include the qualification date, if you expect to qualify for Phase 2 – and you know that an energy supply will be included in your Significant Energy Consumption (SEC) – you can do the audit work on this supply.

This audit will need to have at least one-year’s energy measurement, but this can be from anytime between 6 December 2015 and 5 December 2019. The audit can use data that has been collected at any time during this period provided that it 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 is coming – ESOS can help get you ready

Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) aims to further incentivise the improvement of energy efficiency and reduction of carbon emissions. It’s also hoped that SECR will reduce some of the administrative burden of overlapping carbon schemes. As such, it’ll be introduced from April 2019 to coincide with the end of the current CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.

Taking action with ESOS compliance will help you get a head start with preparing for SECR compliance. Though ESOS and SECR are separate schemes, and will continue as such, you can use information from your ESOS compliance to support energy and emissions reporting and narrative on energy efficiency action taken in your annual reports.

Make EIC your trusted compliance partner

Whether it’s ESOS, SECR, or CCA, EIC will work with you to reach compliance deadlines and targets. In Phase 1 of ESOS we identified a total of 527GWh worth of energy savings for our clients, equivalent to £49,000,000 in cost savings.