At TCM Capital, we are committed to optimising our customer’s energy bill. For the better part of a decade, our team of dedicated energy tax experts has been helping UK businesses navigate the ever-shifting landscape of energy claims, compensations and tax exemptions. From the Climate Change Levy (CCL) to the Energy Intensive Industries (EII) Exemption and Compensation schemes, we've guided many clients through the complexity of government energy schemes, securing them meaningful, often six-figure savings in the process.
The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme, BICS, is one of the most consequential energy cost relief programmes to be announced in recent years. If you're a manufacturer in one of the UK's priority sectors, this could fundamentally change your electricity bill from April 2027. Here's what you need to know.
Why Was BICS Created?
According to the government's own analysis, in 2024 the UK's industrial electricity prices were the highest of all countries tracked by the International Energy Agency, more than double the median for large and very large industrial users across comparable EU nations.
In line with the government’s effort to keep its local businesses competitive with their international counterparts, and to address the more immediate electricity cost challenges, the government announced the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS).
How Does It Work?
BICS will exempt eligible businesses from the indirect costs of three specific levies that electricity suppliers currently pass on to their customers:
The Renewables Obligation (RO)
Feed-in Tariffs (FIT)
The Capacity Market (CM)
The government estimates this will reduce electricity costs for eligible businesses by between £35 and £40 per MWh.
The scheme is currently scheduled to commence in April 2027, running through to 2035, with a mid-term review in 2030. It will apply across England, Scotland and Wales.
Who Is Eligible?
Eligibility for BICS has two distinct criteria, all of which must be satisfied.
Sector: Operating in a Qualifying Industry
BICS targets two groups of manufacturers:
Manufacturing frontier industries within the government's eight Industrial Strategy priority sectors (the "IS-8").
Manufacturing foundational industries that supply important inputs to those frontier industries. They tend to be heavily electricity-intensive and supporting them is vital to the resilience of UK industrial supply chains overall.
Electricity Intensity: Meeting the Threshold
Eligible businesses must also demonstrate that electricity forms a sufficiently significant part of their cost base. This is in the form of an energy intensity threshold that will be set following the consultation. Most importantly, BICS is designed with a lower electricity intensity threshold than similar existing schemes (EII), meaning it will reach a broader cohort of manufacturers.
What This Means for UK Manufacturers
BICS represents a long-overdue attempt to level the playing field between British manufacturers and their international counterparts. For a business consuming even a few thousand MWh per year, this could translate into hundreds of thousands of pounds in annual savings.
How TCM Capital Can Help
At TCM Capital, helping energy-intensive businesses access and maximise government energy schemes is exactly what we do. Our energy team has spent a decade building expertise across the full spectrum of UK energy exemptions and relief schemes from CCL to EII exemptions, and now the emerging BICS landscape.
As the scheme moves toward its April 2027 launch, businesses will need to prepare understanding their eligibility, gathering the right evidence, and ensuring their energy data support a clean application. That preparation takes time, and the businesses that start early will be best placed to benefit from day one.
If you'd like to understand whether your business is likely to be in scope for BICS, or if you want a broader review of your current energy tax position, we'd love to have that conversation.
