Energy Relief Vaultby MYRIAD
Insights

BICS

What is BICS worth to your manufacturing business?

The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) gives GB manufacturers up to 25% off their electricity bills through banded relief off energy policy costs.

Millie Palmer

The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme is a new government scheme that exempts eligible UK manufacturers from three costs currently loaded onto their electricity bill. The government's own figures put it at up to £40 per megawatt hour, worth as much as 25% off an eligible bill. But that number is a ceiling, not a guarantee, and what your business actually receives depends on a calculation specific to your site.

What are you actually being exempted from?

Three levies sit behind the BICS relief: the Renewables Obligation, the Feed-in Tariffs scheme, and the Capacity Market. Together, these currently add around £35 per megawatt hour to a typical industrial electricity bill. They exist for genuine reasons, funding renewable generation and grid reliability among them, but they fall disproportionately on energy-intensive manufacturers competing internationally against businesses that do not carry the same cost.

An approved BICS exemption removes the burden of these three levies and is worth up to £40 per MWh once granted. It lasts five years, subject to an annual declaration confirming your circumstances have not materially changed, and a full review at the two-year mark.

Why the relief is not a flat rate

Here is what that looks like in practice. BICS support is calculated at the level of an individual manufacturing site, and the level of relief depends on the proportion of your electricity that goes toward eligible manufacturing activity, not whether your business operates in an eligible sector.

If a site manufactures only eligible products, it will qualify for a full exemption. Most manufacturers, though, produce a mix of eligible and ineligible output, or split their electricity between eligible production, eligible supporting activities and ineligible activities. For these businesses, the government applies a banded pro-rating model:

  • 25% or less of electricity used for eligible manufacturing: 0% exemption
  • More than 25% but less than 50%: 50% exemption
  • 50% or more: 100% exemption

This is an important distinction. A site sitting at 24% eligible activity receives nothing, while a site at 26% receives half the relief of one at 51%. The bands reward crossing a threshold, not gradual improvement, which makes an accurate calculation worth getting right the first time; applications cannot be amended once submitted.

Similarly, where a supporting activity supports both eligible and ineligible production, there is a banded amount that can be included:

  • 50% of the electricity can be included, if between 25 and 50% of the electricity used by that activity supports the manufacture of eligible products
  • 100% of the electricity can be included, if more than 50% of the electricity used by that activity supports the manufacture of eligible products

A worked example

Company A operates a single manufacturing site and provides six months of electricity bills, covering March to August 2026, showing 1,000 MWh of grid electricity consumed in that period. Of this, 300 MWh went directly into producing an eligible product on the production line. A further 200 MWh was used on supporting activity such as HVAC, compressed air and material handling, of which Company A estimates 30% supported eligible production.

Because 30% falls between the 25% and 50% supporting-activity threshold, 50% of that 200 MWh, 100 MWh, counts toward the eligible total. That gives Company A 400 MWh of eligible electricity (300 MWh direct plus 100 MWh supporting) out of 1,000 MWh total, or 40%. That places the site in the middle band: a 50% exemption.

Scaled to a full year of roughly 2,000 MWh, a 50% exemption on a bill carrying £40 per MWh of BICS-related costs is worth as much as £40,000 in annual savings.

What if you share a site or a meter?

Shared premises change the calculation, but not the entitlement. If your business shares a site but has its own electricity meter, only your own activity counts; a neighbouring business's ineligible production has no bearing on your exemption. Where the meter itself is shared, you will need to evidence your proportion of the total metered electricity, typically through your landlord or the other party sharing the supply.

It is worth flagging early if this applies to you. Responsibility for gathering that evidence sits with the applicant, not the landlord or third party, and it is genuinely easier to arrange in September than to chase down in the final week of the application window.

Can you claim BICS alongside other schemes?

Businesses already receiving support through the British Industry Supercharger can still apply for BICS, but not for the same electricity twice. Where Supercharger already covers part of your usage, BICS relief applies only to the remaining, uncovered proportion. The two schemes are complementary, not additive, so it is worth checking which relief already applies before assuming BICS adds on top in full.

Key takeaways

  • BICS is worth up to £40 per MWh, but only on the proportion of your electricity tied to eligible manufacturing activity, calculated per site.
  • The exemption is banded, not linear. Crossing from 24% to 26% eligible activity is the difference between no relief and half relief.
  • A single worked example can save real money. A site landing in the middle band on roughly 2,000 MWh a year could be looking at up to £40,000 in annual savings.
  • The relief lasts five years, with an annual declaration and a review at year two.
  • Shared meters and existing Supercharger support both change the sum, and are worth resolving well before the application window opens.