The UK Government is helping businesses reduce their energy bills through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS). Energy suppliers and consumers can’t profit from the scheme; its sole purpose is to provide relief on necessary energy bills.
Below, we summarise the key features of the scheme, answer the most common questions and explain what it means for business energy customers and their bill.
For help to manage bills or save energy, visit our energy bill support hub.
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) has been introduced to support non-domestic energy users including businesses, public sector organisations, and charities.
The scheme applies a discount to gas and electricity unit rates for the majority of non-domestic energy customers.
The government has published a guide outlining how much the EBRS discounts to customer unit rates will be for fixed and variable contract types.
Published discounts for all eligible customers cannot take your unit price below 21.1p/kWh for electricity and 7.5p/kWh for gas.
The EBRS discount will be applied for six months, covering consumption from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023.
You should see the EBRS discount on your bill from November onwards, but backdated adjustments will be applied for any consumption during October.
The scheme is available to customers on a non-domestic energy contract who are:
Support will only be applied within different contract types for the duration of the scheme, which is 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023.
The scheme is not open to:
*The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) revised this on 10 October (previously 1 April 2022)
No. All energy suppliers must automatically apply a discount to unit rates. There’s no need to contact us to claim the EBRS discount.
If you get a message asking for your bank details, this could be a scam. Find out more about how to keep your information safe and avoid scams.
You can opt out of the scheme by notifying our customer service team.
If you're an intermediary, for example a landlord supplying tenants, you cannot opt out of the EBRS. You're legally obliged by the government to pass on what it describes as a ‘just and reasonable’ amount to the end user. Further information for those customers unable to opt out is on gov.uk.
The government will receive access to, store and process customer data as set out in the EBRS privacy notice accessible at gov.uk.
The way the scheme works depends on the type of business energy tariff you’re on. Below, we explain how the EBRS works for different business energy customers.
A: If your pre-1 December contract expires at some point between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023, you’ll be eligible for support on the first day after the end of the contract whether you renew on a fixed contract or roll on to an out of contract rate.