Over 90% of companies not ESOS compliant
Only 753 companies have submitted paperwork of the 10,000 estimated to fall under the new energy efficiency scheme as of yesterday, with the government having updated its website to include a non-compliance form for firms expecting to miss the December 5 cut-off date.
The Environment Agency announced last month that it will not penalise companies which do not meet the deadline as long as they notify the government watchdog by the original deadline that they can meet the ESOS criteria by January 29 next year, in a move some experts called an “extension”.
The Environment Agency (EA) stated that the figure was “going up all the time,” whilst emphasising that the EA will not be changing its enforcement approach.
Speaking to Energyzine, a spokesperson said: “Any organisation submitting a notification of compliance after 29 January 2016 risks enforcement action.
“The indications we have are that many organisations are very near to completing their notification but have not yet filled in the form, which can only be done at the end of the process."
Bill Wright, head of energy solutions at the Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA), thinks businesses may not be complying with ESOS because they either believe that it would be cheaper to pay a non-compliance fine than carry out an energy audit, whilst also blaming the Environment Agency for its “poor promotion” of the scheme.
“The proposed penalties are significantly more severe than have been widely assumed and could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds when the costs of the initial and cumulative fines are calculated alongside the cost of carrying out an energy audit,” he said.
“Another factor which is contributing to ESOS's struggle to take off is poor promotion. The Environment Agency hasn't said who it is sending the letters and emails to, but I suggest we might find more firms rushing to achieve ESOS compliance if they had been sent to the managing directors or chief executives of the companies that qualify for it.
“They perhaps should have also explained more clearly the prospect of fines and possible reputational damage, as the Environment Agency's right to publish the names of the those firms who have failed to achieve compliance is not as widely known as people might expect it to be.”
ESOS is the government's flagship energy efficiency scheme, which requires businesses with more than 250 employees, £40m in annual turnover or a balance sheet of more than £34m to complete an officially approved energy efficiency audit every four years, with the first due by 5 December.
