Energy Company Obligation (ECO)
What is ECO?
ECO is a government energy efficiency scheme in Great Britain that helps households in fuel poverty lower their energy bills and reduce carbon emissions. The scheme is administered by Ofgem, on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
ECO schemes place a Home Heating Cost Reduction Obligation on large energy suppliers, which obligates them to provide support to promote measures that improve the energy efficiency of households in fuel poverty, making it cheaper to heat their homes.
The scheme has had 4 previous iterations: ECO, ECO1, ECO2 and ECO3. You can find details of energy suppliers taking part in the scheme and further information about each iteration on the Ofgem website. The ECO3 scheme closed on 31 March 2022.
ECO4 is the latest iteration of ECO, running from 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2026. The ECO4 scheme offers installers funding to deliver energy efficiency measures in eligible homes, including measures such as insulation, low carbon heating and smart thermostats.
Information for installers
There are standards that installers must follow for the installation of ECO measures. If a measure is referred to in PAS 2030:2019 or falls under MCS, the installer must be either PAS or MCS certified and measures must be installed in accordance with the applicable regulations.
TrustMark is responsible for ensuring compliance with standards and that appropriate guarantees are in place. Measures must be installed by, or under the responsibility of, a person who is registered with TrustMark for the purposes of that measure. Further guidance for installers is detailed in the ECO4 Guidance Document.
ECO4 also includes a mechanism to support the delivery of innovative measures, via a New Measures and Products (NMAP) route. The mechanism supports measures that aren’t currently recognised in the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) or deliverable through the scheme under an existing standard measure type. The Innovation Measure (IM) route offers the opportunity to uplift measures that demonstrate an improvement over comparable measures that are deliverable under ECO.
Further related information can be found on the dedicated ECO4 page on the Ofgem website.