How to avoid paying a fine if you haven't complied with ESOS yet

Have you complied with ESOS yet? You can still avoid paying any fines by booking an audit today

What is ESOS?

ESOS is the government’s energy saving scheme, which calls for all businesses or organisations meeting any ONE of the following criteria to comply:

- Employs over 250 people
- Has a turnover exceeding €50m (£38.9m) and balance sheet assets greater than £33.5m
- Is part of a corporate group which includes a large division meeting the above criteria

The original deadline for audits to be completed was the 5th December 2015, with an extension for organisations to submit their intent to comply until the 29th January 2016. We are now well past the due date for compliance, and over 4500 businesses have yet to do so.

What are the penalties?

If your organisation meets any of the above criteria and you are yet to have an ESOS audit or submit an intent to comply, you are already on the Environment Agency's sanctions list. The EA will be contacting non-compliant organisations with enforcement notices starting now.

If you do fail to comply as quickly as possible, the final sanctions will be in the form of fines. The EA have stated in their guidelines that these will be:

- A fixed penalty of up to £50,000
- Up to an additional £500 for each working day the responsible undertaking remains non-compliant, for up to 80 days

This means that your organisation could stand to pay a total fine of up to £90,000 for non-compliance. Following any fines, you would still be expected to carry out an ESOS audit in order to comply fully.

What can I do to prevent this?

You need to book an ESOS audit as soon as possible. Our qualified lead assessors can audit your energy use and advise you on what you must do in order to comply. It is a straightforward process and will highlight ways in which your organisation can use energy more efficiently. Utilitas Solutions can help you to avoid the fines, as well as making your energy use more cost-effective.