The Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy have published details of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme for Northern Ireland firms.
This scheme will provide energy bill relief for non-domestic customers in Northern Ireland. Discounts will be applied to energy usage initially between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.
There is a similar scheme for Great Britain, providing a comparable level of support.
The discount is automatic. If you get a message asking for your bank details, this could be a scam. You can report messages you think are suspicious.
Eligibility
The scheme will be available to everyone on a non-domestic contract including:
- Businesses
- voluntary sector organisations, such as charities
- public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals and leisure centres
who are:
- on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after 1 December 2021
- signing new fixed price contracts
- on variable ‘day ahead’ tariffs
- on deemed/out of contract or standard variable tariffs
- on flexible purchase contracts
The amount your bills will be reduced
The government will provide a discount on your gas and electricity unit prices. To calculate your discount, the estimated wholesale portion of the unit price you would be paying this winter will be compared to a baseline ‘government supported price’ which is lower than currently expected wholesale prices this winter.
For all non-domestic energy users in Northern Ireland this government supported price has been set at:
- £211 per megawatt hour (MWh) for electricity and
- £75 per MWh for gas
This level will ensure consistency with businesses and consumers in Great Britain. It will not be the same as the final per unit price paid by non-domestic customers, which will also reflect other costs such as network charges and operating costs, plus the impact of competition between suppliers.
How it works
Applying the reduction
Suppliers will apply reductions to the bills of all eligible non-domestic customers.
The government will compensate suppliers for the reduction in wholesale gas and electricity unit prices that they are passing onto non-domestic customers.
The discount applied will be in pence per Kilowatt Hour (p/kWh). The p/kWh government support for comparable contracts will be the same across suppliers, but the absolute level of individual bills will continue to vary across different contracts and tariffs.
The gas and electricity wholesale markets in Northern Ireland and Great Britain are closely correlated so the discounts to be applied in Northern Ireland will be calculated using data from Great Britain.
How you will get the reduction
The support will be automatically applied to all eligible bills. You do not need to take action or apply to the scheme.
If you signed your fixed contract before 1 December 2021
If you signed your fixed rate contract before 1 December 2021, you would not have been exposed to the recent rises in wholesale prices, so you will not be eligible for support under the scheme.
This support package only applies to fixed rate contracts signed after 1 December 2021, as it was from that point the more drastic wholesale price rises have taken effect. If you signed your fixed rate contract before 1 December 2021 you will not be eligible for support under this scheme.
If you’re out of contract
If you are out of contract and are waiting to see the details of government support, you should set up your contract as normal. Your supplier will automatically apply appropriate reductions to your energy price for the duration of the scheme.
If you get your energy through a landlord / heat network / energy service company
We expect businesses and other organisation to pass on the benefits under this scheme through to the end user in a reasonable and proportionate way. This will ensure support, for instance, to customers of heat networks and park home residents.
Original article from CEFNI
