The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) provides support for businesses which have trouble with high energy bills through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) and the Energy Bill Discount Scheme (EBDS). Businesses that receive their energy from any means other than through a licensed supplier may be eligible for relief but need to apply for relief. If eligible for support, members could get support for energy used from 1st October 2022 to 21st March 2023, but the deadline to apply for support is 11th September 2023.
DESNZ have provided the following details on eligibility:
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Eligibility
The EBDS and EBRS provide relief for non-standard and non-domestic customers that use energy provided by licence-exempt suppliers, where prices paid are pegged to wholesale prices. This includes energy taken from the public electricity or gas grid, or where electricity or gas is received via private wire or pipe. This could include businesses that receive power from energy from waste plants, biomass plants, anaerobic digestors and renewable generation.
Energy Bill Relief Scheme
Under the EBRS, non-domestic customers may be eligible to receive retrospective support for the period of October 2022 to March 2023. Claims should be made on the behalf of eligible non-domestic customers by their energy supplier, but it is possible for individual businesses to apply. Further information can be found here.
Applications for support under the EBRS must be received by 11th September 2023.
Energy Bills Discount Scheme
As with the EBRS, energy providers should apply for support on behalf of their customers (with the exception of ETII certification, see below) but it remains possible for individual businesses to apply where necessary.
The EBDS will provide support between 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Further information can be found here. It includes two levels of support, the baseline discount support and a higher level of support. The higher level support is referred to as EBDS support for Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) and Heat Networks. The relevant entity, which may be their customers, needs to make a separate application for a certificate to be able to access this higher level of support.
- The baseline discount provides some support with energy bills for eligible non-domestic customers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
- The Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) discount provides a higher level of support to businesses and organisations in eligible sectors – businesses need to make a separate application for a certificate to be able to access this higher level of support – the deadline for this is 25th July 2023. Further information is attached to this email. Businesses can check to see if they are in an eligible sector here.
- The Heat Network discount provides a higher level of support to heat networks with domestic end consumers – businesses need to make a separate application for a certificate for this support – the deadline for this is 25th July 2023.
It is the responsibility of the end user to make an application for certification for these higher rates of relief, which is a separate process to energy providers applying on behalf of eligible customers to DESNZ for relief under EBDS NSC.
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If you have any questions, please contact the EBRS team here, or contact the REA here.