BICS is a UK Government scheme designed to reduce certain electricity policy costs for eligible manufacturing businesses in Great Britain.
For eligible businesses, BICS exempts qualifying sites from the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market. Exemption from the RO and FiT costs is expected to start in April 2027, and from Capacity Market costs in October 2027.
The government announced on 15 April 2026 that bills could be cut by up to 25%, worth around £35 to £40 per MWh. Those figures come from that announcement rather than the applicant guidance, and the exemption is banded by site, so many sites receive less or nothing.
Applicants need evidence supporting eligibility, including six consecutive months of electricity data within the relevant period. Applications cannot be amended after submission, so completeness and consistency matter.
Applications open 1 October 2026 and close 30 November 2026 at 11:59pm. A business may make one application per legal entity in a year, and that application can cover multiple sites.
Once an application is submitted, it cannot be amended. There is one right of appeal, limited to errors in assessing the evidence or calculating the eligible proportion. Where an application fails mandatory evidence checks, the decision is final and there is no right of appeal.
Relief depends on the share of a site's electricity used to manufacture eligible products: 25% or less gives 0%, more than 25% but under 50% gives a 50% exemption, and 50% or more gives 100%. A site with mixed production can therefore receive nothing.
Six consecutive months of electricity data from the 12 months before applying, plus production evidence. The guidance is explicit that sales and purchase notes are not accepted as evidence of production: ERP or production records and quality-control records are. Records must be kept for six years.
An exemption lasts five years, subject to an annual declaration each December to January and a full eligibility review in year two. Missing a declaration can have the exemption revoked.
Sites on private networks may qualify where they bear the relevant policy costs, but those supplied through a generator import meter are excluded in the first year of the scheme. Your electricity supplier confirms whether your arrangement is in scope.
Sources: DBT/BIST BICS guidance for applicants and Annex A evidence requirements (published 10 August 2026), and the eligible SIC and HS code list (version 3, 25 August 2026). You can also use the government's own free eligibility checker, which gives an indication only and does not result in a decision.
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