ESOS Registration Deadline 31 December 2015 - TEC Guidance

The Energy Savings Opportunities Scheme (ESOS) is a hot topic among energy, estates and finance staff in HEIs as we found out at our recent workshops, which some of you will have attended.

With the 31 December 2015 deadline for registration under the ESOS looming, we have responded to the uncertainty which was evident with a memorandum providing guidance. As we do not have all your members as TEC members, please feel free to distribute this important guidance to any of your contacts within HEIs in your area. It is an important initiative which could prove expensive if HEIs fall prey to consultants selling them what could be unnecessary services.

You can find details of the scheme on our website, and links to DECC documents.
We decided to seek independent legal advice on behalf of our members and approached McDermott, Will & Emery, a renowned law firm with a very strong energy and environmental practice. We asked them to answer the following questions:

• Can we clarify the exemption under the organisation’s requirement to comply with the Public Contracting Regulations 2006 (PCR 2006)?
• If an HEI chooses to adhere to PCR 2006 rules, what are the implications around exemption?
• Whether HEIs funded through the Student Loans Company might be deemed as publicly funded, and hence required to comply with PCR 2006 and;
• What present steps and measures around Energy Performance in Buildings and other environmental standards do to enable an HEI to meet the requirements of ESOS?

We think the memorandum gives clear answers and we would urge you to share this with as many people in your network who may be involved in energy management. There has been a good deal of activity by consultants offering often expensive and, it seems, unnecessary services to HEI’s to assist them with ESOS compliance.

This is a clear example of where TEC should be providing assistance and guidance to all our members and the wider HE sector. We are pleased to be able to fund this sort of information where there is an opportunity to avoid confusion, in order to save money for TEC members and as part of our provision of a comprehensive managed energy service.

Please call us if you have any further questions about this or any other aspect of our services.