In the pursuit of a more sustainable future, the United Kingdom has been steadfastly committed to addressing its carbon footprint and energy consumption. This journey began decades ago, spurred by influential initiatives such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988 and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change established in 1992.
As a continuation of this trajectory, the UK government introduced the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) regulations in 2019, however, many businesses have failed to comply with the SECR guidelines. In this article, Julian Grant from Chauvin-Arnoux UK, revisits the regulation, discusses which businesses it effects and what’s required of them, and where it appears to be going wrong.
The SECR reporting framework replaced the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC EES) and extended the scope of the existing Mandatory Carbon Reporting (MCR) regulations to include all large organisations. It aimed to use energy efficiency as a mechanism to help increase business productivity, and in doing so also improve the security of energy supplies, with the goal to reducing current demand by at least 20 per cent before 2030.
It was, and still is, aimed at companies with at least 250 employees or an annual turnover greater than £36m, as well as an annual balance sheet greater than £18m, which according to government statistics, would involve about 12,000 businesses. If a business met the criteria, it would be automatically entered into the scheme and the energy use, carbon emissions, and actions to improve energy efficiency of the business, would be made publicly available alongside some reference comparison metrics.
As the name suggests, the SECR was designed to streamline and reduce complexity in the carbon and energy reporting landscape and broaden the scope for reporting compliance. However, discussions with business leaders and facility managers over the ensuing years have identified the complexity of the calculations as the major reason for many of them not getting on with it.
It was always known that compliance with SECR would involve added administrative costs and potential equipment investments, but that the benefits of achieving the proposed 20% enhancement in energy efficiency would outweigh these expenses. Nevertheless, the requirement for an inclusive energy management system that integrates people, processes, and technology, involves deep operational analysis to comprehend sustainable changes for implementation, along with the associated manpower, has created a lot of mixed feelings in the industry concerning its real worth.
After all, in the quest for improved energy efficiency, and for some time now, many progressive businesses have already embraced advanced tools such as Power and Energy Loggers (PELs) to track energy consumption across their facilities and find opportunities to make savings. With insights from the Carbon Trust revealing a staggering 20% of electrical energy is being squandered due to inefficient equipment, and British Gas SME smart electricity meter surveys indicating that 46% of energy consumption occurs outside regular operating hours, employing PELs like the Chauvin Arnoux PEL104 to pinpoint and rectify these inefficiencies has already become an obvious course of action.
The PEL104 is a compact, lightweight, electronic monitoring instrument used for collecting electrical data which can be temporarily placed in distribution panels or around the facility without difficulty, and without the need to interrupt the mains supply or shut down the installation or office building first.
The PEL104 measures a whole range of electrical parameters, such as voltage, frequency, current, real power, reactive power, harmonic levels and more. Crucially, the PEL doesn’t only measure these parameters, it also stores the results over time, ranging from a few minutes to months.
Use of PELs has invariably led to situations where many businesses are implementing energy reduction and cost saving measures, but not necessarily going to the effort of complying with the SECR rules on analysing and reporting, which leaves them in a somewhat precarious legal position. Currently, businesses failing to meet SECR requirements are not being fined for their non-compliance, however, if it continues to be ignored that situation is likely to change. Other energy reduction schemes, such as ESOS, have already imposed fines as high as £50K on businesses that failed to comply.
Fortunately, the PEL104 offers a comprehensive solution for businesses to log, measure, and analyse electrical energy use in real-time, capturing crucial data on energy consumption patterns, and identifying areas ripe for optimisation. By collecting granular information on energy usage, the PEL104 also enables companies to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of their energy-saving initiatives and refine strategies accordingly. Just the sort of information a business needs to comply with their Streamlined Energy and Carbon Report!