The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BIC) is the newest energy non-commodity discount scheme to be launched to help British manufacturers. The scheme has been in consultation during 2026 so whilst the information provided below is the most up to date possible, there will likely be changes on the implementation deliverables as the scheme rolls out and matures.
The scheme aims to reduce electricity costs for manufacturing frontier industries within the Industrial Strategy’s growth sectors (the ‘IS-8’), and manufacturing foundational industries which provide important inputs to the frontier industries, who meet a certain threshold of electricity intensity.
Eligible businesses are to be exempt from the following non-commodities:
This will equate to savings in the region of 25% of businesses electricity costs depending on their commodity costs.
The initial round of exemptions are subject to a highly limited application window where businesses are invited to provide information to DBT to support identification of eligibility.
1 October 2026 – 30 November 2026
Successful applicants will be confirmed by the 8th January 2027 to enable suppliers to implement RO and FIT exemptions for April invoicing and CM for October invoicing.
In April, the Government announced that businesses who successfully apply for this initial round of BIC exemptions will receive an additional payment in 2027 to reflect the support they would have received had the scheme been in place sooner, making it crucial to act promptly to avoid missing out on two years of benefits. These additional payments will be issued by your electricity supplier in the form of a single lump-sum credit.
Following this, applications will be possible year-round but businesses will only be able to join the scheme at the start of each delivery year (April for RO and FIT, October for CM).
Eligibility will last for five years, subject to a review at the end of year 2 and a mandatory annual declaration to confirm that there have been no changes in circumstances.
The initial test for eligibility for BIC Exemption is at Sector Level.
The scheme is targeted to frontier and foundational manufacturing industries. A list of eligible activity SIC and HS codes is available which must be matched to your business activity, where necessary we can look at eligibility at a product level.
The Business Level test is significantly easier to pass than for Eii and NCC.
Businesses must simply have electricity usage of over 33 MW/h per year and be registered on companies house.
In the consultation response published in April 2026 the government confirmed that there will be no electricity intensity test for individual businesses, with electricity intensity assessed at the aggregate sectoral level only.
Whilst BIC is an excellent boost for manufacturing in the UK, if it is possible that your business qualifies for Eii and NCC that would be the preferred scheme to apply for as whilst it has a higher administrative burden, it also provides higher benefits. See our article comparing Eii NCC and BIC for more details.
