On the 25th of May 2022, the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) together with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) hosted a workshop for Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) SANAS Accredited Inspection Bodies (IB) at CEF House.

The objectives of the workshop was to solidify the relationship between the regulator, its regulatory partners and the SANAS Accredited Inspection Bodies who are mandated by the regulation to issue the EPC. The DMRE, which is the Regulator of the EPC together with its regulatory partners which are SANEDI (the EPC program administrator) and South African National Accreditation Systems (SANAS) – the accreditor of inspection bodies – successfully engaged the accredited inspection bodies on critical issues of compliance, accreditation, EPC awareness creation, market challenges that the inspection bodies are facing and possible solutions for the future.

The DMRE presented on the alignment of the EPC with the Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings and Infrastructure Program (EEPBIP) and highlighted the importance of the IB’s involvement with the EEPBIP. The workshop emphatically emphasized the need to upload and register buildings for the purpose of efficient monitoring. Moreover, important topics which were relevant to the IBs work on the EPCs such as awareness creation for EPC and EEPBIP, capacity building and job creation for youth, women and people with disabilities and formation of the IBs representation body were discussed.

The IBs also took the opportunity to present on the challenges they are faced with in the EPC market. They gave presentations on the role of the regulator and custodianship, market challenges and further submitted proposals on the EPC Regulation. As part of the major challenges they are faced with, the building owners do not know much about the EPC and let alone the processes of acquiring certification for their buildings, which requires the IBs to take the client through thorough information sharing before they can engage in business. This challenge has time cost implications of its own. The other challenge, which will prove detrimental to the EPC program if it is not resolved quickly, is the issue of data integrity. It is currently a challenging experience for IBs to access data. The availability and quality of data poses significant challenges. Even the clients who have good systems in place have trouble presenting data in a usable format, in a timely manners and error free.

Furthermore, to resolve the issue of data quality, it will increase the cost of assessment which becomes unnecessarily costly for the client. Furthermore, the workshop considered the opportunity of creating a single voice for the inspection body market for an effective relationship with the Regulator and its regulatory partners.