I know that many commercial businesses and properties are also affected by high energy prices. As such, the Government has introduced schemes to help businesses.
The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) runs for 12 months from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
The scheme consists of 3 different parts:
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A Baseline Discount* provides some support with energy bills for eligible non-domestic customers, and this support is applied automatically
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An Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) Discount provides a higher level of support to businesses and organisations in eligible sectors, which you will need to apply for here
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A Heat Network Discount provides a higher level of support to heat networks with domestic end consumers, and you need to apply for this here
Eligible organisations will have 90 days from 26 April 2023 to apply for the higher support, but new organisations (or newly eligible organisations) will have 90 days to apply from the date at which they become eligible.
Discount(s) will be applied automatically, and you should continue to pay your energy bills as normal until it is applied.
Eligibility
For more information relating to eligibility for the baseline discount of scheme, please click here. However, most non-domestic customers will not see additional support on their energy bills from April and any support is likely to be significantly reduced.
It is important that businesses shop around for the best deals available to them. Ofgem has provided advice on doing so, and this can be accessed here. I hope this of use.
Energy Bills Relief Scheme (EBRS)
The predecessor to the EBDS was the Energy Bills Relief Scheme (EBRS). This ran from 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Through the EBRS, the Government provided a a discount on wholesale gas and electricity prices for all non-domestic customers whose current bills have been significantly inflated in light of global energy prices until 31 March 2023.