From 26 April 2023, the government has launched their registration portal for businesses to apply for additional levels of support under the EBDS scheme. The portal will be open for businesses to submit their application within 90 days from 26 April 2023.

EBDS Outlined

As you may be aware, the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS), which supported businesses from October 2022 to March 2023, is being replaced with the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) from the start of April 2023. This scheme aims to provide support to businesses from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Further details on the new EBDS Scheme can be found here.

The scheme comes with three bands of support to allow businesses within energy-intensive industries or heat networks to access a higher level of support for vulnerable industries.

The EBDS Baseline discount provides some support with energy bills for eligible non-domestic customers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

• The EBDS baseline discount is notably lower than the previous EBRS discount.
• This support will be available to most business and is applied automatically.

The Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) discount provides a higher value of support to industries highly reliant on energy use.

• An organisation is considered eligible for ETII support if at least 50% of its revenue is generated from UK based activity within an eligible sector.
• A list of qualifying energy intensive industries can be found here.
• This support must be applied for via the EBDS portal.

The Heat Network discount provides a higher value support for heat networks with domestic end users.

• Most housing associations, charities & councils will fall in this category. More information can be found here.
• This support must be applied for via the EBDS portal.

EBDS Process

Organisations are expected to apply for any discount they may qualify for within 90 days from 26 April 2023 via the EBDS portal.

• Examples and information on the data required to make applications to the portal can be found here.
• Templates provided by BEIS to assist with applications can be found here.

Once an application has been submitted via the BEIS portal, the government will then assess eligibility and liaise directly with your supplier, who will then apply the discount at the point of billing.