The British Industrial Competitive Scheme (BICS) could reduce electricity costs by up to 25% for around 10,000 UK businesses. Are you one of them?
Energy-intensive industries have faced significant energy cost volatility in recent years, making budgeting and long-term planning more difficult.
The new scheme won’t take the uncertainty out of global markets, but it will make eligible businesses exempt from various other schemes associated with business energy, reducing costs.
The scheme is coming soon. We’re here to help you understand what it is, and whether your business could take advantage of it.
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The British Industrial Competitive Scheme (BICS) is a government-backed energy support scheme designed to cut energy bills for more than 10,000 businesses in various manufacturing industries.
Eligible businesses will be exempt from the indirect costs of three electricity schemes:
Exempting businesses from the above schemes could save around £35-40 per MWh according to GOV.UK. It is expected this could equate to 25% of your energy bill.
The scheme is expected to save businesses up to £600 million on their energy bills, while there will be no increase in bills for ineligible business users or domestic users.
Actual savings will vary depending on a site's electricity consumption and the proportion of costs currently associated with these schemes.
Approximately 10,000 businesses across the UK will be eligible to receive BICS.
The scheme was initially designed to target 7,000 organisations, but this has been expanded by 40% to include a further 3,000.
Large businesses and SMEs are eligible with exemptions applied on a site-by-site basis.
Sectors that could benefit include automotive and aerospace, steel producers, metal fabricators, pharmaceutical and medical supplies companies, recycling businesses, plastic producers, nuclear fuel processors, and cooling and ventilation equipment manufacturers, states GOV.UK.
Operating within an eligible sector does not automatically guarantee qualification, as eligibility will also depend on site-specific energy usage and government criteria.
The level of exemption depends on the proportion of a site's electricity consumption that qualifies under the scheme. Sites using:
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will publish an online eligibility checker to enable businesses to self-assess whether they are likely to be eligible for BICS.
We will update this page when the eligibility checker becomes available.
In short, you can’t apply yet, but eligible businesses must provide information to DBT to qualify. BICS is not applied automatically.
The process of identifying eligible businesses begins on 1st October 2026.
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