10 January 2023

Energy bills support continues – at reduced rates

The Government yesterday published its plans for the end of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) for businesses which comes to an end on 31 March.

The EBRS will be replaced by an Energy Bill Discount Scheme (EBDS) which will run from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024.

Businesses which have been receiving help under the EBRS will be eligible for the EBDS and will not have to take any action – discounts will continue to be applied to energy bills automatically.

However, the new rates of support are lower than under the current EBRS scheme.

How the Energy Bill Discount Scheme will work

The new scheme applies a discount if wholesale prices are above a certain price threshold. The wholesale price thresholds are £302 per MWh for electricity and £107 per MWh for gas. The discount is calculated as the difference between the wholesale price associated with an energy contract and the price threshold. The discounts will be subject to a maximum of £19.61 per MWh for electricity and £6.97 per MWh for gas.

It's not clear yet how the discount will be applied and therefore how much companies can expect to save on their energy bills, but the level has been significantly reduced on the current offering.  

Extra help for Energy and Trade Intensive Industries

The majority of the printing industry has not been assessed as an Energy and Trade Intensive Industry.

However, some SIC codes have been identified to fall into this category. They are:

• 14.12 Manufacture of workwear 
• 17.11 Manufacture of pulp
• 17.12 Manufacture of paper and paperboard
• 17,21 Manufacture of corrugated paper and paperboard and of containers of paper and paperboard
• 17.22 Manufacture of household and sanitary goods and of toilet requisites
• 17.23 Manufacture of paper stationery 
• 17.24 Manufacture of wallpaper
• 17.29 Manufacture of other articles of paper or paperboard
• 22.19 Manufacturer of other rubber products (other = not tyres)
• 22.22 Manufacture of plastic packing goods 
• 22.29 Manufacture of other plastic products 

A company can be registered with up to four SIC codes. Check your activity and ensure that you are registered under the correct SIC code(s) for what you do.

Those eligible for the ETII level of discount will need to apply; more information on how to do so has been promised from Government ahead of April.

Next steps

We have a number of questions about the Scheme, including how the discounts will be applied and how businesses apply for the ETII level.

We are meeting with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy tomorrow morning (10 January) so please send your initial questions and comments today to [email protected] copying in your Regional Director.

We will publish more information as and when we receive it from Government, and there will be further opportunity to let us know how impactful you think this Scheme will be.

More energy help

For more help with energy costs, start your journey on our Environmental Roadmap.

We have teamed up with energy broker Inenco who will do their best to find the best deals for you. They’ve also published a series of helpful papers including ‘Understanding Business Energy for SMEs’ and ‘Top Energy Efficiency Tips’.

Charles Jarrold, CEO of the British Printing Industries Federation, said:

“We’ve pushed hard on behalf of the industry to see support remain beyond March. It’s encouraging it will be in place for a further year but It’s disappointing the levels have been reduced.  The industry is still under intense pressure and we’re looking forward to hearing from members about the impact of the reduction in support and feeding this back to Government.”