ISO 50001 road to ESOS Compliance

Efficient use of energy is good economics as well as helping to tackle the global climate change problem. Any organisation can achieve the ISO 50001 standard, but it is particularly relevant to large energy users or if you qualify for the ESOS legislation.

ISO 50001: An alternative route to ESOS compliance

ISO 50001 outlines how a business should develop and maintain an Energy Management System (EnMS) and is known as one of the most cost-effective methods of energy and cost reduction.

ISO 50001 certification will improve your energy efficiency, enhance your sustainability credibility when tendering for contracts, demonstrates your organisation’s commitment to corporate responsibility and could result in monetary benefits. It can also help you reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet any EU ETS, EPBD and CRC commitments you may have. In addition, accredited sites are exempt from the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) (as long as at least 90% of your total energy use is covered).

Some organisations are considering ISO50001 for ESOS Phase 2 in 2019 to implement a robust energy management system and make future ESOS compliance easier. Although the ISO certification has typically proven more expensive than an ESOS assessment, significant energy savings translate directly to enhanced profits for the certified organisation.

Where are we up to?

Phase 1

The Phase 1 compliance deadline passed in December 2015.

Even so, many companies are still yet to comply. If you qualify for ESOS but are yet to act, the Environment Agency will have tried to get in touch with you. If your organisation has missed this deadline, you will need to fill in the online form on the Environment Agency website to explain why.

Phase 2

We are still waiting for confirmation of the format of the next iteration of ESOS, the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme.

According to the 2014 ESOS guidance, the qualification date for the next round of ESOS is 31st December 2018. The compliance date is 5th December 2019 and it is assumed that these dates will not change.

It was understood that the details around the next iteration of ESOS would be clarified following the government consultation in 2015. The response to the consultation ‘Reforming the Business Energy Efficiency Tax Landscape’ published in March 2016, cited a “simplified energy and carbon reporting framework” to be implemented in April 2019, and mooted investigating ways to combine ESOS with EUETS and other carbon and energy reporting frameworks.

However, the second phase of this consultation – which was initially due in summer 2016, then postponed to late 2016 – is still to be launched. The new reporting scheme would replace CRC, and would apply to a ‘large company’ as defined by ESOS qualification.