Energy Bills Discount Scheme kicks in

Managing rising energy bills has been a challenge for many business owners in recent months. The new Energy Bills Discount Scheme, announced as part of the March Budget, is designed to support eligible non-domestic energy customers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This scheme replaces the Energy Bill Relief Scheme and runs from 1st April 2023 for twelve months.

The new scheme is made up of three parts, each offering different levels of support to eligible businesses.

• The Baseline discount.
  This provides automatic support with energy bills for eligible non-domestic customers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This support will be applied automatically through a per-unit discount to your energy bills. This should be visible in your May bill.
• The Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) discount.
  This second element of the scheme will provide a higher level of support to businesses and organisations in eligible sectors – you will need to register to get this support, within 90 days of the scheme opening. More guidance is promised, and will be available from this page of Gov.uk.
• The Heat Network discount.
  This third element will provide a higher level of support to heat networks with domestic end consumers. Again, you will need to register to get this support and will be obliged to pass the benefit to your customers. More guidance is promised, and will be available from this page of Gov.uk.

The reality is that levels of support received by the majority of small businesses will reduce under the new Energy Bills Discount Scheme.

You can find more information here.