Skip to main contentFor electricity-intensive sectors, BICS represents a significant opportunity to lower operating costs, improve international competitiveness and reinvest in productivity and sustainability initiatives. It is aimed at providing targeted support for the UK’s highest potential growth sectors.
What is BICS?
BICS offers discounts of up to £40/MWh through exemptions from the Renewables Obligation (RO), Feed-in Tariff (FiT) and Capacity Market (CM) levies.
The level of exemption is determined by the proportion of a site’s electricity used to manufacture eligible products, applied through banded thresholds:
- Less than 25%: no exemption
- 25% to 50%: 50% exemption
- More than 50%: 100% exemption
Because the bands are stepped rather than sliding, falling just below a threshold can materially reduce savings.
Do you qualify for BICS?
Unlike existing energy compensation schemes, BICS is broader in scope and reaches sectors that may not previously have received government compensation or exemptions.
To be considered for BICS, a business must:
- Operate within an IS-8 frontier industry or a qualifying foundational industry
- Carry out manufacturing activity
- Meet the required electricity-intensity threshold
On the face of it, whether you qualify for BICS appears straightforward. But when you look more closely at the details of the scheme it is evident that for many manufacturers it can be more complex.
How we can help you to save
Here at Envantage, we can help you every step of the way, including:
- Product and sector eligibility checks across SIC codes, frontier and foundational classification, and HS6 codes.
- Site-level eligible electricity calculations with full engineering analysis to justify the highest defensible exemption band.
- Evidence pack preparation to protect your ongoing compliance and savings.
- Application submission and query handling, dealing with the scheme administrators on your behalf.
- Ongoing compliance, bill validation and savings tracking.
Applications are expected to be open from October 2026, so it’s important to act now to maximise your savings.
Get in touch today to find out how we can help, and
Join our BICS Forum below to stay up to date with all the important developments.
Other support for UK Manufacturing
BICS launches in 2027, but some business may already qualify for other schemes.
The Energy Intensive Industries (EII) scheme allows some businesses to receive up to 100% exemption on eligible electricity costs across RO, FiT, CfD, CM, RAB (Regulated Asset Base charges) and the EII support levy. These exemptions apply immediately once approved. NCC (Network Charging Compensation charges) compensation also rises to 90% in April 2026. BICS presents a valuable future opportunity, but EII can deliver larger savings immediately for qualifying businesses.
Exemptions cannot be duplicated, meaning that businesses can only gain exemption through one scheme. That makes it essential to asses your eligibility now, rather than waiting until 2027. For companies that will only qualify for BICS, early preparation will be key. Ensure you are ready to secure savings as soon as the scheme opens.
Envantage can support both routes: identifying immediate EII opportunities and preparing your business for BICS compliance.
Join the British Industry Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) Forum group
“When market electricity prices climbed to unprecedented levels in December 2021, had we not worked in partnership with Envantage on a risk-managed approach to energy purchasing, we would have been subject to an additional exposure of £8.9 million in just one year of increased electricity prices.”
Don & Low
Your energy exemption and compensation experts
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