British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme
To address the more immediate electricity cost challenges, the government is pressing ahead with the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) as part of its Modern Industrial Strategy.
Eligible sectors are manufacturing frontier industries within the Industrial Strategy growth driving sectors (the 'IS-8'), together with the manufacturing foundational industries that provide important inputs to the frontier industries.
Businesses eligible for BICS will receive exemptions from the indirect costs associated with 3 existing electricity policy schemes:
the Renewables Obligation (RO) and Feed-in Tariffs (FiT) which require electricity suppliers to make payments to support generation of electricity from renewable sources; and
the Capacity Market (CM) which requires electricity suppliers to make payments to ensure the UK has adequate electricity capacity
To be eligible for BICS, your business must meet all 4 of the following criteria:-
Criterion 1: be registered on Companies House
Criterion 2: operate within an eligible sector
Criterion 3: manufacture eligible products in Great Britain
Criterion 4: use at least 33 megawatt-hours (MWh) of grid-supplied electricity per year at the manufacturing site for which support is being claimed
To note, only electricity supplied from the grid is eligible for BICS support.
Before applying you should consider checking the likelihood of your business being eligible.
The first BICS application window opened on 1 October 2026 and will close on the 30 November 2026 at 11:59pm. APPLICATION LINK
