Your CPD responsibilities
As a professional member of the Energy Institute, your CPD is a personal commitment to growth, quality, and impact. There are no minimum hour requirements; the Energy Institute does not prescribe how much time you must spend on CPD. What matters is the quality of your learning, the relevance to your practice, and your ability to reflect on what you've gained and how it has made a difference.
To meet your professional obligations, you should be:
- Keeping your CPD broad and balanced: Your learning should span a range of topics and areas relevant to your area of work. Concentrating solely on one subject will not demonstrate the well-rounded development expected of a professional member.
- Maintaining an accurate, up-to-date record: A continuous and honest record of your CPD activities is essential. Your record should reflect your real learning journey not just what you've completed, but how it has shaped your practice.
- Undertaking a purposeful mix of learning activities that:
- Are relevant to your current role or where you want to develop next
- Improve the quality of your professional practice
- Benefit those who rely on your work — whether that's your employer, clients, or the wider public
- Reflecting on your development: Reflection is at the heart of meaningful CPD. Rather than simply logging activities, you should consider what you've learned, how you've applied it, and what difference it has made. This reflective approach is what transforms learning into lasting professional growth.
A note on hours
The Energy Institute does not set a minimum number of CPD hours. The emphasis is placed firmly on impact — what you learned, why it mattered, and how it has improved your practice.
Record your CPD
Maintaining an accurate, continuous CPD record is a mandatory requirement for all professional members of the Energy Institute.
To support you, the Energy Institute offers two ways to record your development. Whichever method you choose, your record should be kept current, reflect genuine reflection on your learning, and be ready to submit if requested as part of a CPD audit.
- mycareerpath® — the Energy Institute's free online platform, designed to help you plan, record, and reflect on your professional development all in one place. This is our recommended tool for keeping your CPD record up to date.
- CPD Record Template — if you prefer to work offline, you can download and use our CPD record template instead. Please ensure you update the date on the form to accurately capture your learning activities within the correct period.
Your CPD record should demonstrate:
- A variety of learning activities spanning different areas and formats
- Genuine reflection on what you learned and how it has benefited your practice
- Consistent, ongoing development rather than activity concentrated into short periods
- Breadth across professional practice, technical knowledge, and professional skills
- ESOS Lead Assessors: You must record your ESOS-related CPD using either the Energy Institute's dedicated ESOS CPD template, or a format that clearly identifies ESOS-specific CPD hours and learning objectives.
CPD monitoring and audit
The Energy Institute conducts an annual CPD monitoring exercise to ensure that professional members are meeting their development obligations. Each year, a proportion of members across all registration categories are selected to submit their CPD records for review by the CPD Panel.
Engineering registrants (CEng, IEng, and EngTech) and Professional Members (MEI) are subject to a minimum 5% annual sample, while at least 10% of Chartered Environmentalists (CEnv) or a minimum of 10 registrants, whichever is greater are selected each year. ESOS Lead Assessors are required to submit their CPD records annually without exception, regardless of whether they hold Chartered Energy Manager or RPEC status.
Being selected is a normal part of professional membership. The best way to be prepared is to keep your CPD record accurate, up to date, and reflective of your ongoing development throughout the year not just at the point of submission.
The CPD audit timeline
The Energy Institute's annual CPD audit runs across a structured cycle from August through to March the following year. The process begins in August, when the membership team downloads a fresh sample list from the EI database, confirms the audit cohort, and establishes the tracking framework for the exercise.
CPD record requests are issued to all sampled members in September, accompanied by submission guidance and supporting FAQs. Members are given until November to submit their records, with reminders issued throughout October and a final prompt ahead of the closing deadline. A CPD webinar is also held during this period to provide additional guidance and answer member queries.
Once submissions close, a randomly selected sample of records is allocated to assessors for individual review during December and January. Assessors complete their evaluations ahead of the Panel meeting, at which point their completed review forms are collated and a full panel pack including a statistics report, agenda, and assessor findings is prepared and circulated.
The CPD Panel meets in February to discuss the reviewed records, agree actions, and issue written feedback to members whose records were considered. Members who have failed to submit without an agreed deferral or extension are subject to lapsing of their membership or registration at this stage.
The cycle concludes in March, when the CPD Annual Report is presented to the Professional Development Committee (PDC) for sign-off, and all records and actions are formally archived.
Please note: Specific submission deadlines for the current audit cycle are confirmed each year. Contact the membership team or check your member communications for confirmed dates.
The monitoring process
If selected for monitoring, you will receive notification and must submit your CPD record. The CPD Panel reviews a proposition sample of CPD submissions and provides constructive feedback where appropriate.
The monitoring process:
- Ensures members maintain professional standards
- Provides constructive feedback on your CPD approach
- Supports your continued development
Resources and support
The Energy Institute is committed to making your CPD journey as straightforward and rewarding as possible. Whether you're just starting out or maintaining long-standing professional registration, a range of resources is available to support you at every stage.
- mycareerpath® : Our free online professional development platform, built to help you plan, record, and reflect on your CPD in one place. Log your activities, track your progress, and maintain a portfolio that's ready when you need it.
- ESOS CPD Training Package: A dedicated five-hour training package developed specifically for ESOS Lead Assessors. Structured to meet the CPD requirements of your role, it covers the core knowledge and competencies expected of practising Lead Assessors.
- Monthly CPD Articles/ New energy world magazine: Every month, the Energy Institute publishes expert articles on energy management topics to keep you informed, inspired, and ahead of developments in your field a simple and accessible way to weave learning into your regular routine.
- CPD- related Events, Courses & Publications Look out for our events, training courses, and publications.
For assistance with your CPD record enquiries, please contact our Professional Development team at [email protected]
Guidance videos
Watch our videos below explain:
- The benefits of CPD for individuals and where you can record it.
- how to complete your CPD record and why reflection is so important.