The Energy Managers Association (EMA) has thrown its weight behind the government’s plans to introduce mandatory energy audits for large enterprises from 2015 – but has voiced its concerns that the scheme may put an unnecessary administrative burden on energy managers.
Speaking to Energy Demand, Tim Mukasa, head of policy at the EMA said that the organisation was “largely positive” about the plans, unveiled last month, as it may help energy managers operating within larger businesses press home the importance of energy savings.
“It will highlight the need to reduce energy, which is what energy managers need,” he said. “Businesses need to recognise the need for energy savings, and it’s a good way to get board rooms to engage with this issue. We hope it will raise the profile of the energy manager throughout the business.”
Proposals for the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS), launched as a consultation by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in late July, could see all businesses with more than 250 employees obliged to commission an “approved” assessor either in-house or externally to carry out comprehensive audits of all their energy usage, including transport, every four years.
According to DECC, the audits would cost in the region of £17,000 on average in the first instance and £10,000 for each subsequent audit, which Mukasa believes will substantially improve the business case for a dedicated energy manager.
“Without anyone to drive the process there’s a danger that it could just get left on the shelf,” he said. “But then £17,000 is an extortionate amount of money to pay if you’re not going to see any of the benefits. It will need an energy manager to take control of the process and actually implement the recommendations.”
Although each audit will result in a set of energy saving recommendations, the business is not obliged to follow them up, but Mukasa pointed out that the cost of the scheme could motivate the boardroom to follow them through. DECC estimates that ESOS could save each business an average of £56,400 per year with just £15,000 of investment.
However, the EMA is concerned that the scheme may overlap significantly with existing energy efficiency legislation, and place yet more administrative pressure on energy managers. Of the 7,300 businesses expected to fall into ESOS, up to 6,000 are set to be already in the CRC Carbon Reduction Scheme, as well as mandatory carbon reporting.
“There are some concerns amongst our members that it’s a third thing on top of carbon reporting,” said Mukasa. “Many of our members feel that they spend more time reporting to government than actually cutting their energy bills.”
Additional EMA concerns include the quality of training that the assessors will receive, as well as how the data collected by the scheme is used by the government.
“Most energy managers are trained engineers, and they don’t want cowboys coming in to do energy audits,” Mukasa said. “Then there’s the question about the actual data from the scheme, and who has access to it. Will it be made publicly available? Because if it is, it will actually show an energy breakdown of the whole country, and energy services companies will be able to see where they can target their products. But if government just keeps it to itself, then it will have no value.”
The EMA is now in discussions with DECC, with a view to addressing these concerns.