A new scheme has been launched in the UK, designed to help businesses save at least £250 million in energy costs by 2016.

The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) is expected to help reduce business energy costs by a total of £1.6 billion by 2030. ESOS is a mandatory energy assessment and energy saving identification scheme for large undertakings and their corporate groups. Under the scheme, which applies throughout the UK, businesses will be required to look closely at their energy usage to identify cost-effective energy savings.

About 9,400 large enterprises will be required to calculate their energy use from next year under a major new scheme being rolled out by the government that aims to slash power costs and carbon emissions across industry.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) last week confirmed the final details of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) which demands all organisations outside the public sector with more than 250 employees undertake energy audits once every four years in line with the EU's Energy Efficiency Directive.

The government hopes that by mandating businesses across a range of sectors to measure their energy use, they will then take simple steps to curb demand.

Its impact assessment shows the scheme could deliver an average energy reduction of 0.7 per cent for businesses, delivering total savings of £1.6bn over the period to 2030.

Overview
The ESOS is a mandatory energy assessments and energy savings identification scheme for large undertakings in the UK. Compliance under this scheme must be entailed by 5th December 2015, however action is recommend ASAP to allow ample time to carry out all actions required.

Am I affected?
You are likely to be in the ESOS if, on the qualification date of 31st December 2014 you are:

An Undertaking which has 250 or more employees in the UK.


An Undertaking which has fewer than 250 employees, but has:
o An Annual turnover exceeding €50m and,

o A balance sheet exceeding €43m



Part of a corporate group which includes an undertaking which meets criteria 1 or 2 above.
What must we do?
A brief overview:

Measure total energy consumption across:
Buildings,
Transport- Freight and business travel in company and employees vehicles
Industrial activities.
Conduct energy audits to identify cost-effective energy efficiency recommendations.
Report compliance to the Environment Agency by 5th December 2015
Before notification to the Environment Agency, the ESOS assessment must be conducted or reviewed by a lead assessor and reviewed by a board level director.

What if we do not comply?
Failure to correctly comply with the scheme can lead to fines of up to £50,000 and / or an additional fine of £500 per day, until compliance is entailed, for a maximum of 80 days. Non complying companies will also be named and shamed.

Where can I find help?
If you think you may qualify for this scheme or you aren't sure, please contact Envantage Ltd to discuss compliance in more detail. We can provide you more details on how the scheme works and how we can help meet the requirements of the scheme.