Open letter to Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
from George Richards, Director, JRP Solutions
YOU'RE MISSING THE OBVIOUS LOW HANGING FRUIT - ESOS!
We read with interest your announcement on 17th April about your ‘plans to drive multi billion pound investment in energy revolution’. This investment across a range of measures is vital to the country’s future energy security and to continue to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions.
However, we were extremely disappointed to see that there was no mention of any investment to help businesses SAVE ENERGY. Perhaps because it doesn’t play into a big sexy, vote winning, buzz words like ‘driving an energy revolution’. Businesses are responsible for more than half of the energy used in the UK and the scope to save energy is significant, but it is evolution, not revolution that is required to drive the change.
Of course, there is already a Government scheme that ensures businesses are focussed on energy saving. The scheme mandates organisations with over 250 employees (or over €50m turnover) to carry out energy audits to identify ways to reduce energy use and is called ESOS (the Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme). The audits must be carried out every 4 years and we are now in the run up to the ESOS report submission date of 5th December 2023 for the 3rd round of audits.
According to the BEIS consultation document on Phase 3, ‘The proposed measures of Phase 3 of ESOS could yield energy use savings of up to 93TWh in the period from 2023 to 2037’.
To put this into layperson’s terms, that’s the equivalent of powering up to 12 million homes in the UK for 2 years. Or, the equivalent of running a gas power station for up to 35 Years or 2% of the UK’s annual electricity consumption.
Before Phase 3 started, there was a consultation to find out what energy professionals thought could be improved on from Phase 2. Some changes were made but there was a general feeling that the changes did not go far enough. It really did seem to be a case of playing around at the edges and kicking the can down the road to Phase 4. All in all, a lost opportunity for the positive action needed to meet our Net Zero targets.
AND, frustratingly, we are still waiting for clarification on several areas of Phase 3. There is a limited number of qualified ESOS assessors, and in order to meet the submission deadline organisations like ours are already working with customers on their ESOS audits, without the final details of what is required (e.g. is di minimis 5% or 10%, what is the process for completing submissions etc). There will be a massive bottle neck by submission date if everyone waits for the details to be clarified, and many will therefore miss the submission deadline and be subject to fines.
On the face of it ESOS was a Europe-wide initiative with great potential, but it seems to have been left in the wind by the UK Government with a lack of commitment to extending the scope and even to finishing off the work that has already been started on Phase 3.
On the Gov website, it states that ESOS is the responsibility of 3 bodies:
- Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
- The Environment Agency
- Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
So, some questions for you:
- Who is actually responsible for ESOS?
- When will the details for Phase 3 be finalised?
- What investment will the Government put into supporting businesses to deliver the energy savings opportunities identified in ESOS? These savings are the low hanging fruit – we know what we need to do to achieve them and we know what it’s going to cost.
Without this support energy savings of up to 93TWh in the period from 2023 to 2037 will not be achieved. And we know that what can be achieved is probably ten times this amount in reality if appropriate investment and support was given.
Some answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.
@Therese Coffey, @Rishi Sunak, @Jeremy Hunt