New government discount scheme

Author: Lucy Knight, customer care and communications specialist at Utility Aid   

On 9 January 2023, the government announced introducing a new Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS), which will run from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. This will replace the previous Energy Bills Relief Scheme that provided a discount to all eligible organisations (which ends on 31 March 2023).

The new Energy Bills Discount Scheme will discount eligible non-domestic consumers’ wholesale energy costs. Eligible non-domestic customers include businesses, voluntary sectors, such as charities, and public sectors, such as schools, hospitals or care homes are:

• On existing fixed price contracts signed on or after 1st December 2021
• Signing new fixed-price contracts
• On deemed/out-of-contract or standard variable tariffs
• On flexible purchase or similar contracts 

The new scheme offers consumers a unit discount of up to £6.97/MWh unit discount to their gas bill and a unit discount of up to £19.61MWh on their electricity bill during the 12 months from April 2023 to March 2024, above a threshold level of £107/MWh for gas and £302/MWh of electricity. Please note that 1000kWhs = 1MWh.

EBDS, similarly to the Energy Bills Relief Scheme, only applies to wholesale unit prices, so your overall cost will be higher. Unfortunately, only some of the details of this scheme have been released, but we will provide you with updates as and when more details are released.

The government has listened and understood that more help is needed for organisations with their energy bills and has put this scheme in place for 12 months. This discount, similarly to EBRS, will automatically be deducted from your energy bill, and you do not need to apply.

If you have any questions regarding any information that has been released in this update, you can contact us at .