Energy Act 2023

Establishment and application of schemes

254 Energy savings opportunity schemes

(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations (“ESOS regulations”) make provision for the establishment and operation of one or more energy savings opportunity schemes.

(2) An “energy savings opportunity scheme” is a scheme under which obligations are imposed on undertakings to which the scheme applies for one or more of the ESOS purposes.

(3) The ESOS purposes are—

(a) enabling or requiring the energy consumption for which an undertaking is responsible, or the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from that consumption, to be assessed, audited, reported and published;

(b) enabling or requiring possible energy savings or emissions reductions to be identified and recommended;

(c) enabling or requiring the costs and benefits of possible energy savings or emissions reductions to be assessed;

(d) encouraging or requiring undertakings to produce plans or set targets for achieving energy savings or emissions reductions;

(e) encouraging or requiring undertakings to take action for the purpose of achieving energy savings or emissions reductions;

(f) encouraging or requiring undertakings to achieve energy savings or emissions reductions.

(4) An energy saving is a reduction in the energy consumption for which an undertaking is responsible.

(5) An emissions reduction is a reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions that result from the energy consumption for which an undertaking is responsible (whether or not that consumption is also reduced).

(6) ESOS regulations may make provision about determining—

(a) the energy consumption for which an undertaking is responsible;

(b) the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from that consumption.

(7) ESOS regulations may—

(a) impose requirements on any person;

(b) confer functions on any person;

(c) provide for a person to exercise discretion in dealing with any matter.

(8) The provision made by this Part is without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1).

(9) For the purposes of this Part—

(a) the scheme established by the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/1643) is to be treated as having been established by provision made under subsection (1);

(b) a reference to a scheme administrator includes a reference to a compliance body within the meaning given by those Regulations.

255 Application of energy savings opportunity schemes

(1) ESOS regulations may provide for—

(a) an energy savings opportunity scheme to apply to specified descriptions of undertakings;

(b) specified descriptions of undertakings to be excluded from the application of the scheme.

(2) ESOS regulations may make provision about circumstances in which—

(a) two or more participants are to be treated for the purposes of the regulations as if they were a single participant;

(b) an obligation imposed under the regulations on one participant is to be treated as if it had been imposed on a different participant.

(3) The provisions of this Part relating to energy consumption apply to energy consumed by assets located, or activities carried on—

(a) wholly or partly in the United Kingdom;

(b) wholly or partly in an offshore area;

(c) where subsection (4) applies, elsewhere.

(4) ESOS regulations may make provision about circumstances in which the energy consumption for which a participant is, for the purposes of the regulations, responsible may include energy consumed by—

(a) assets located elsewhere than in the United Kingdom or an offshore area, or

(b) activities carried on elsewhere than in the United Kingdom or an offshore area.

(5) The provisions of this Part relating to greenhouse gas emissions apply to the emissions resulting from energy consumption to which this Part applies whether such emissions occur in the United Kingdom, in an offshore area or elsewhere.

(6) ESOS regulations may make provision about the attribution of energy consumption to participants, including in particular provision about the treatment for the purposes of the regulations of—

(a) a participant’s consumption of energy generated by that participant;

(b) energy consumption by a person over whom a participant has control or influence;

(c) energy consumption shared between a participant and one or more other participants or other persons;

(d) energy consumed by assets held on trust by or for a participant.

(7) In this section, “offshore area” means—

(a) waters landward of the seaward limit of the territorial sea adjacent to the United Kingdom,

(b) any designated area within the meaning of section 1(7) of the Continental Shelf Act 1964, and

(c) any area for the time being designated under section 41(3) of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009,

and includes the places above those areas and the bed and subsoil of the sea within those areas.