Your trusted adviser for R&D Tax Credits, Creative Tax Relief, and R&D Grants
Your trusted adviser for R&D Tax Credits, Creative Tax Relief, and R&D Grants
BICS is a new government scheme that removes the indirect costs of three electricity policy charges for eligible UK manufacturers, worth up to £40 per megawatt hour. Applications open on 1 October 2026 and close on 30 November 2026.
The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme is designed to reduce electricity costs for manufacturing businesses that are important to UK growth.
Eligible businesses are exempted from the indirect costs of three existing electricity policy schemes:
Together, these currently add around £35 per MWh to a typical industrial bill. An approved BICS exemption is worth up to £40 per MWh and, once granted, lasts for five years, subject to an annual declaration and a full review after year two.
Your application must be submitted by 30 November 2026 to access the BICS energy bill reductions.
These dates apply to the scheme's first year. Applications cannot be amended once submitted, and each business can only make one application per year, though it can cover multiple sites.
To be eligible, a business must meet all four of the following criteria:
Only electricity drawn from the grid counts. Electricity from on-site generation, such as solar panels or CHP, is excluded from every calculation.
If you only manufacture eligible products, you will generally qualify for a full exemption. Where a site produces a mix of eligible and ineligible products, the exemption is pro-rated based on the proportion of grid electricity used for eligible activity:
"Eligible activity" includes the production line, but also supporting activity that is necessary for manufacturing, such as HVAC, lighting, IT systems, material handling, testing and even some of the corporate office space.
If a business shares a site, a meter, or already receives support through the British Industry Supercharger, the calculation adjusts accordingly; a shared MPAN, for example, means only your proportion of the metered electricity is assessed.
BICS applications are evidence-heavy, and evidence must be dated within the 12 months before you apply, covering six consecutive months. In outline, you'll need to provide:
The full evidence requirements run to several pages of detail and what applies to your business depends on how you're supplied, whether you share a meter, and whether your site produces a mix of eligible and ineligible products.
Qualifying for BICS is rarely as simple as the government's own eligibility checker suggests. Matching SIC and HS codes correctly, proving six months of consumption against the right threshold, and untangling shared meters or third-party billing arrangements is detailed, technical work, and there's no opportunity to fix an application once it's submitted.
Energy Relief Vault combines software with specialist review to take you through it:
Every estimate we give you before an application is submitted is clearly marked as indicative, and there are no upfront fees to find out where you stand.
BICS will not reopen until its next annual window. The specific dates of the next window have not yet been announced.
Given the scale of potential savings and the time it takes to gather six months of evidence, it's worth starting well before the 30 November 2026 deadline.
Yes. You'll need to evidence your proportion of the metered electricity, typically through your landlord or the other party, and the exemption will apply only to your share.
You'll still qualify, but your exemption will be pro-rated based on the proportion of grid electricity used for eligible manufacturing, using the following bands:
Yes, provided the relief doesn't overlap on the same electricity. BICS will apply only to the portion of your consumption not already covered by a Supercharger exemption.
Five years, subject to an annual declaration in most years and a full eligibility review after year two.
You can still apply. Where sub-metering isn't available, you're asked to provide a reasonable estimate, based on machine-level electricity use or production data, along with your rationale.
Yes. A third party can complete and submit the application, provided a Companies House-registered officer confirms by email that they're authorised to act for the business. The business remains responsible for the accuracy of everything submitted.
There's one right of appeal, but only where you believe an error was made in assessing your evidence or calculating your exemption. Appeals cannot be used to challenge the scheme's rules themselves, such as which sectors or products are eligible.
With an eight-week application window and no ability to amend a submission once it's in, the businesses that benefit most are the ones who start gathering evidence now.
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