BICS opens 1st October: are you ready?

Most non-commodity cost updates involve new charges appearing on your bill. The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) is the opposite.

This scheme presents a genuine opportunity to strip costs out, but it comes with a short application window, real evidence requirements and it rewards businesses who start preparing early.

What does the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) do?

BICS is a levy exemption for eligible manufacturers. For a qualifying site, it removes three familiar non-commodity costs out of your electricity bill:

• Renewables Obligation (RO) - a levy that requires electricity suppliers to source a proportion of their power from accredited large-scale renewable generators, such as offshore wind farms; the cost of meeting that obligation is recovered from consumers through their bills (exempt from April 2027)
• Feed-in Tariffs (FiT) - a support mechanism for smaller renewable and low-carbon installations, typically under 5MW, such as rooftop solar or community-scale wind; it guarantees payments to those generators, funded through a charge spread across all electricity bills (exempt from April 2027)
• Capacity Market (CM) levy - a mechanism that pays power stations, battery storage and other flexible capacity providers to be available to supply electricity at short notice, ensuring enough generation exists to meet demand at peak times; suppliers pay into it and recover the cost through customer bills (exempt from October 2027)

The government estimates the value of full exemption at around £35 – £40/MWhⁱ, a meaningful number for any energy-intensive site and one that impacts a bill far more than most non-commodity cost movements do.

Do you qualify?

To qualify for BICS, your business needs to clear two hurdles:

1. The administrative and usage test:
   Your business is registered with Companies House.
   Your site consumes at least 33 MWh of grid-supplied electricity a year
2. The sector and product test:
   You manufacture in one of the Industrial Strategy's growth sectors (the IS-8) or a foundational industry that supplies them — defined by your registered Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code.
   The product you make falls within the published list of eligible Harmonised System (HS) commodity codes. If your site makes both eligible and ineligible products, relief is banded on a sliding scale based on the eligible share of your site's grid electricity useⁱⁱ:

Share of grid electricity used for eligible manufacturing / Relief

• 25% or less: 0%
• More than 25% but less than 50%: 50%
• 50% or more: 100%

How do you apply?

The first application window runs from 1 October to 30 November 2026 at 11:59pm. However, once submitted, applications cannot be amended - so it's worth having your evidence in order well before you start. If your application is approved during this round, you will also qualify for the one-off backdated payment covering support back to April 2026.

A consultant or energy partner can submit the application for you, provided a Companies House-registered officer has confirmed their authorisation.

Timeline Summary

Date / What happensⁱⁱⁱ

• Now: Government eligibility checker live; mixed sites should start working out their eligible-use share
• 1 October 2026: Application window opens
• 30 November 2026, 11:59pm: Application window closes
• January 2027: Government confirms eligibility decisions by email (into late January for complex cases)
• April 2027: RO and FiT relief begins on invoices
• October 2027: CM relief begins on invoices
• TBC 2027: Businesses confirmed eligible in this first window receive a one-off backdated payment covering the support they would have received from April 2026

The link to the application will be available on the BICS collection page.

What businesses should be doing now

At a high level:

1. Review the evidence requirements We’d recommend reviewing the published guidance for applicants prior to the application window opening to get a handle on what you need to be looking at. The ‘Annex A: evidence requirements’ list is particularly helpful to understand exactly what is required. Applications must be submitted by an officer registered on Companies House or by someone that officer has authorised by email - including a consultant or energy partner acting on the business's behalf. Please note that the business itself remains responsible for the accuracy of the application and any evidence submitted, even where a third party completes it.
2. Get your data in order The level of exemption you receive depends directly on demonstrating what proportion of your grid electricity use relates to eligible manufacturing. Where you have sub-metering or electricity monitoring data covering the required six-month period, government guidance says this should be used; where you don't, you'll need to provide an estimate and a clear rationale for how you reached it. The government's own guidance sets out a full step-by-step calculation method, including worked examples for shared meters and landlord billing arrangements.
3. Get ahead of the game As suggested, this first window carries a real incentive. Businesses confirmed eligible in this first application round receive a one-off payment backdating support to April 2026, covering what they would have received had the scheme already been running - a benefit the government has said will not be repeated in later entry windows. So, make sure you’re ready to go and don’t miss the deadline.
4. Plan for this as a standing commitment A successful exemption is valid for five years, subject to an annual declaration and a full eligibility review in Year 2. You must also notify the department of any material changes – including changes to site activity, meter arrangements, or company structure – or you risk having the exemption revoked.

BICS sits in the same category as EII exemptions and other levy relief mechanisms many manufacturers are already navigating, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less complicated. This is where a consulting partner who understands both the commercial contract and the compliance landscape can help you.

Evolve Energy is a UK independent energy supplier specialising in renewable energy supply and flexible business energy contracts for industrial and commercial (I&C) customers.