Energy Savings
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
The Government are today publishing the Government response to the energy savings opportunity scheme (ESOS) consultation and laying draft regulations in Parliament to give effect to the policy.
ESOS will require large enterprises to undertake energy audits to identify opportunities to save money on energy bills through improved energy efficiency. It is estimated that the scheme will deliver £1.6 billion of net benefit to the UK.
The scheme is the Government’s approach to meeting the requirements of article 8(4-6) of the EU energy efficiency directive (2012/27/EU).
In developing this scheme, officials in my Department have worked closely with colleagues across Government and with industry experts. Government consider that ESOS demonstrates a proportionate approach, in line with principles of better regulation—we expect the scheme will yield significant net benefits for the UK as a result of the energy saving achieved.
The Government response sets out our consideration of the responses to the public consultation held from July to October 2013. The Government response summarises stakeholder responses to each of the consultation questions, and sets out the Government’s policy decisions, with reasoning.
We are also publishing a guide to ESOS for scheme participants, and the ESOS impact assessment. This demonstrates that ESOS has real potential to enhance economic growth and energy security in the UK, and to reduce our carbon emissions through improved energy efficiency—saving 3 TWh per year.