In April 2019 the Climate Change Levy, which is an environment tax on all industries energy bills, is set to rise by a massive 42%. 

The good news is that the printing industry has been designated as an energy intensive sector and can therefore claim huge discounts off the levy. In fact, at the same time as the levy increases, the discounts available will also rise from the current 90% on Electricity, to 93%, and from 65% on Gas, to 78%.

Unfortunately however printing companies only have until this year to start claiming the discount, with the deadline for applications being 31 July 2018.

In order to start claiming the discount a site has to join the BPIF's Climate Change Levy Reduction scheme, but its only worth doing if the benefits of the discount outweigh the costs of the scheme. 

Luckily it's very simple to work out whether that's the case, as the levy appears as a distinct line on your energy bills. Or the BPIF can do it for you, simply send a representative monthly electricity bill to Steve Walker (details below), or better still your annual electricity consumption in kWh's and he will be able to tell you exactly how much you would save.

If you think the savings are worthwhile he will then visit, free of charge, to explain the requirements of the application process and the energy efficiency requirements so you can move forward in the full knowledge of what you're getting and what's required of the site.

250 of the larger sites in the industry are already on the scheme but with the increase in the levy many more may find it beneficial. However by the time the levy increases in 2019 it will be too late to join the scheme. The chart below gives an example of the saving on both electricity and gas at various consumption levels.

Energy	Annual Usage in kWh's	Current  Annual Saving	Annual Saving from April 2019
Electricity	500,000 kWh's	£2,556	£3,938.55
	1,000,000 kWh's	£5,112	£7,877.10
	3,000,000 kWh's	£15,336	£23,631.30
Gas	500,000 kWh's	£643.50	£1,322.10
	1,000,000 kWh's	£1,287	£2,644.20
	3,000,000 kWh's	£3,861	£7,932.60

The cost of the scheme starts at £1,185 plus VAT for a member company with a turnover of less than £10m.

If you want to know more please contact Steve Walker on 01676 526050 or email [email protected]