Energy Bills Discount Scheme
The Government has introduced the Energy Bills Discount Scheme. This scheme will apply a discount to energy usage for 12 months between 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, based on the wholesale price of energy.
How will the discount be applied
The amount of discount provided is dependent on the day your contract price was fixed. This is the date when we locked in your unit rate and processed your contract.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero have published the discount rates on their website. We will apply the discount to your unit rate. The relative discount will be applied if wholesale prices are above a certain price threshold, which has been set at 30.2p/kWh. The maximum discount available is 1.961p/kWh.
Here's an example of how it will appear on your bill:
Fixed contracts with no passthrough elements
- For single unit rate customers, the unit rate will have the relevant discount applied.
- For multi-rate customers, we will calculate a single weighted average unit rate and use that to determine your discount.
- If your meter has multiple rates (i.e. Day and Night), the discount on your bills will be different to the Government published discounts.
- The Weighted Average Price (WAP) between the rates is based on your historical Estimated Annual Consumption (EAC)/HH data (i.e. 70% day VS 30% night).
This is an example of how we’re calculating multi-rate discounts:
| Price Fix Date | 02/09/22 |
| Energy Bill Relief Scheme Discount | 1.961 |
| Meter set up | Day and night |
| Contracted rates | Day 35.0. Night 22.5 |
| Split (from point of sale) | Day 77%. Night 23% |
| WAP (for multi rate) | 32.125 |
| WAP minus Government discount | 30.164 |
| Above or below Government Supported Price (xx.x) | BELOW |
| Difference (WAP discount minus Government Supported Price) | -1.925 |
| Final discounted rate (EBDS Discount minus difference) | 1.925 |
Fixed contracts with passthrough elements (commodity fixed, TPCs passthrough)
Where your Third Party Costs (TPCs) are passthrough, the charges appear separately on the bill. To calculate whether you're eligible for a discount we have to first calculate your Weighted Average Price, taking into account your consumption and the cost of all of the TPCs.
We then apply the appropriate discount against that calculated total unit rate, ensuring it doesn’t breach the Government Supported Price of xx.xp/kWh. That discount will apply for the whole winter.
Eligibility criteria
The support could reduce bills for customers who agreed a Fixed contract on or after 1st December 2021.
You entered a Fixed contract so may be eligible for the Energy Bills Discount Scheme.
We’ll automatically apply the price reduction to your bill which is based on the wholesale price of electricity. The discount will reflect the Government Supported Price of 30.2p/kWh (£302/MWh).
Discounts will not go below the Government Supported Price of 1.961p/kWh (£19.61/MWh).
If the wholesale price was below the Government Supported Price for the day you signed your contract you will not receive a discount.
More information regarding EBDS and eligibility can be found on the Government website.
What if you have additional energy market exposure?
If you have entered into any arrangements outside of your supply contract to manage risks associated with wholesale prices and are expected to use more than 0.5GWh a year or use more than 0.5MW in any half hour, then you need to be aware of part 4 of the EBRS Regulations. You can find more details on the Government's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero website.