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Value Added Tax (VAT) is a tax that is applied to most goods and services in the UK, including business energy bills. The standard rate of VAT is 20%, but there are a number of discounts and exemptions available to businesses, which can help to reduce the amount of VAT you pay. Not only is this a useful piece of information for small businesses to know, it may also mean more money going back into your business rather than to the dreaded tax man!   VAT on electricity for businesses Much like any other goods or services you access as a business, you will pay VAT. The current standard rate of VAT is 20%. However, since the government wants to offer as much incentive to businesses as possible to reduce their energy consumption and improve their energy efficiency, such discounts and exemptions of VAT payments can be applied. This is of course, subject to eligibility.    If you are eligible for a discount or exemption on your electricity VAT, this should be applied automatically by your supplier. However, you may need to confirm this at the time of approval. Ensuring that all parties are aware of the reduced fee. Keep an eye out on your bills for what you are paying. For more help understanding your bill click here.    Discounts and exemptions available to businesses from the UK government   The Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption: This exemption applies to businesses that use certain types of renewable energy, such as solar power, wind power, and biomass. Fuel Duty: If you use a generator to power your business, you may be able to reclaim some of the Fuel Duty that you pay on the fuel you use. The De Minimis supply: If your business uses less than a certain amount of energy each year, you may be eligible for a reduced rate of VAT of 5%. The de minimis limits are 1,000 kWh of electricity per month or 4,397 kWh of gas per month.   Signing a CCA (Climate Change Agreement)  Signing a Climate Change Agreement (CCA) as a UK business comes with both obligations and benefits, primarily in the form of potential financial savings and reduced carbon footprint. Here’s a breakdown:   What is a CCA? A CCA is a voluntary agreement between your business and the Environment Agency. In exchange for meeting specific energy efficiency and carbon reduction targets, you receive a discount on the Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax added to your electricity and fuel bills.   By signing a CCA you are agreeing to making improvements to the energy efficiency of your business, reducing your energy consumption. This provides you with the opportunity to receive discounts of up to 90%.    It is important to remember that discounts and eligibility for discounts is always subject to change as per the government’s guidelines. To ensure you are always up to date with the latest information regarding discounts and exemptions on your business energy bills, read the GOV.UK site.  For more energy saving tips and advice on how to improve the energy efficiency of your business premises, check out more of our D-ENERGi blogs.

Introduced at the beginning of January by the UK government, the Energy Bill Discount Scheme or the EBDS, for short, will spring into action from 1 April 2023. This will not only see the beginning of a new support scheme for businesses but will see the end of the temporary Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS). What is happening to the EBRS? The EBRS, which we have touched on in a number of previous blogs, will be coming to an end on the 31st March 2023. The government was clear from the beginning that this scheme would only be a temporary solution for businesses and all non-domestic energy customers to deal with the effects of rising wholesale gas and electricity prices. As wholesale gas prices have now fallen back down to levels seen before the invasion of Ukraine, the government will be ending the EBRS and instead introducing a new scheme, the EBDS. Key facts about The Energy Bill Discount Scheme Below are the simple key facts about the Energy Bill Discount Scheme, that all business energy customers should be aware of: This new scheme will come into effect from April 1st 2023 It has been designed to support businesses over the following 12 months. The new scheme will limit the taxpayer’s exposure to volatile energy markets, with a cap that will be set at £5.5 billion. The EBDS will then come to an end on 31st March 2024. What does this mean for business energy customers? This new scheme will provide an energy bill discount to all eligible businesses. This will be a per-unit discount, subject to a maximum discount. These maximum discounts have been set at: Electricity – £19.61 per megawatt hour (MWh) with a price threshold of £302 per MWh. Gas – £6.97 per MWh with a price threshold of £107 per MWh However the government has recognised that there are particular sectors where the higher energy prices leaves them more vulnerable than others. The list of Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) details which businesses are included in this. Those within these sectors will receive a higher level of support from the government. The maximum discounts for these will be: Electricity – £89 per MWh with a price threshold of £185 per MWh Gas – £40 per MWh with a price threshold of £99 per MWh Just like previous schemes, customers do not have to actively apply reductions to bills. Instead, suppliers will do this on your behalf. However, if you are a company working within an industry listed on the ETII list, you will have to apply for the higher support available. The discount you are eligible for will be deducted in pence per kilowatt hour. It is important to note that depending on the tariff and contract you are on and your individual organisation, the level of support will vary. Are you eligible for the Energy Bill Discount Scheme? On the official government website, the eligibility criteria has been outlined as anyone who is on a non-domestic energy contract including the following: businesses voluntary sector organisations, such as charities public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals, and care homes who are: on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after 1 December 2021 signing new fixed price contracts on deemed / out of contract or standard variable tariffs on flexible purchase or similar contracts on variable ‘Day Ahead Index’ (DAI) tariffs (Northern Ireland scheme only) For More information about the EBDS Scheme or to confirm that you are eligible, please do not hesitate to contact the D-ENERGi customer support team. We will be happy to help explain the scheme in more detail and explain how this will benefit your organisation from April onwards.  

The energy price cap is set by Ofgem. Ofgem, as you may already know, are an independent national regulatory body who oversee the gas and electricity markets. The cap itself is a limit set by Ofgem that determines the maximum amount of energy suppliers are able to charge you for each unit of energy you use. This applies if you live in England, Scotland, and Wales. It came into place back in 2019 and has been used ever since to ensure that customers who are on default energy tariffs are treated fairly and are not disadvantaged by the energy market. Over the last few months the energy price cap has been a big topic of discussion. With the rising wholesale prices of gas prices, the energy price cap became a focal point. However, one thing to note is that there is no energy price cap for business energy, which has left businesses in far more uncertainty. Why does the energy price cap not apply to businesses? The energy price cap was an initiative to simply support domestic energy customers, this does not reach into the business energy sector. However, this does not mean that there is zero support for businesses with the rising energy costs. Currently, there are other government schemes in place or in the pipeline to support businesses during this time. The EBRS Scheme  The EBRS Scheme will be running until March 31st  2023. This is a government scheme that works to limit the wholesale price that suppliers pay to generators for energy. This scheme has enabled energy suppliers to support their business energy customers, during a time when wholesale gas prices are incredibly high and increasing. At D-ENERGi, we have touched on this in other blogs in further detail. The new EBDS Scheme Once the EBRS Scheme comes to an end in March 2023, the government have recently announced the EBDS initiative. This is the Energy Bills Discount Scheme which will run for a year from April 2023 through to April 2024. All non-domestic consumers in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland are eligible. Since wholesale gas prices  have lowered back to levels they were before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, these schemes have only ever been intended to be temporary. This new EBDS Scheme will work to continue to support businesses over the next 12 months, as they continue to navigate the volatile energy markets. For more information regarding the current support on offer for business energy customers, do not hesitate to get in touch with our team here at D-ENERGi.

With 2022 behind us, 2023 is here and there’s no doubt everyone will be curious as to what this year has in store. It’s been 3 years since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the world in an unprecedented way, followed by an energy crisis and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. It certainly may not feel like it has been that long since the following few years of unexpected twists and turns were written into the global history books, but here we are. As an energy provider, our focus is on the current energy crisis and the rising cost of living. For customers and businesses alike the hope is that 2023 will see a positive change. So, in this new article, we are talking about some of the predictions and forecasts that have come out of the sector for the next 12 months. Support for low carbon energy is likely to increase  Reaching net zero continues to become a focal point for governments, businesses and individuals across the globe. With the UK government being one of the first to lay out a timeline for achieving such targets, 2023 will play a focal role in the government taking actions in order to prepare the country for the changes required to achieve these goals. Investment into natural resources Thanks to a strong 2022 for renewables, with steady growth over the past 12 months, it is projected that interest from investors into renewable energy sources from natural resources may increase. However, the volatility of the market is currently the hurdle that could put a stop to this growth in 2023. There are several factors which cause challenges within the renewables sector, including the following: A lack of policies in place to support the renewables sector A lack of Infrastructure and installation is expensive Solar, wind, and other renewable sources of energy have to battle with the strong and historical fossil fuel industry, which does all it can to remain in the favour of governments. New technologies in the energy sector It’s not surprising that as we move further into the technological age, new technologies will be introduced to the energy sector. Two key areas predicted to be at the forefront of evolving technologies are hydrogen and battery energy storage systems (BESS). The use of hydrogen is being looked at in new ways, with the UK’s Hydrogen Strategy, which was launched in 2021, the government sees the use of hydrogen as one of the key ways to achieve decarbonisation in the country. With this strategy the government is providing lots of funding to financially support hydrogen projects. This is set to continue into 2023 and beyond, in conjunction with other projects and plans for achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Renewed interest in the nuclear sector  Following the impact the previous year has had on the energy sector, the UK government has expressed a renewed interest in the use of nuclear energy. The government has committed to an expansion of nuclear power in the UK with plans to reach 24 GW of installed nuclear power capacity by 2050. This means over the course of 2023 and onwards we will see the development of projects such as the introduction of a new governing body, Great British Nuclear and investment into nuclear plants. As these many points suggest, there is no doubt that 2023 will continue to be a challenging year for the energy sector. While prices continue to fluctuate, we are not out of the woods just yet, all the while the government will begin to push further for projects and innovations to move the country away from fossil fuel reliance.

Now we are settled into the new year, it may seem a little strange to look backwards rather than forward, but a year like 2022 can not be overlooked. Throwing many challenges our way, 2022 was a tumultuous year. The energy sector, in particular, battled the high waves of an energy crisis and a cost of living crisis, affecting energy providers, businesses and domestic consumers. Our review of 2022 gives a reflection of the year just gone, providing some insight into what impact this has had on energy consumption and prices. Afterall, sometimes you have to look back to lead forward. The energy crisis Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces back in February 2022, global gas supplies were impacted. This, and many other factors have led us to the point we are now. As the world recovered from the unexpected breakout of COVID-19, countries began facing shortages and increased prices for oil, gas and electricity, even back in 2021. This has placed us in a position where the price of oil hit its highest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis. The higher wholesale prices have placed energy providers into the difficult situation of having to raise their prices for both domestic and non-domestic energy customers. Ultimately, we have witnessed how the increasing energy prices have forced families into extremely vulnerable financial positions. Across Europe, in particular, the close ties to Russian gas supplies has created huge concern and discussion around the inevitable “cutting of ties” between major European countries and Russia, while homes and businesses are at risk of dealing with potential gas rationing and blackouts. As we move into 2023, governments are looking to alternative energy sources to help relieve the incredible financial pressures this has placed on consumers and businesses over the last two years. We touched on this in another blog article several months ago, exploring the topic of Russian reliance. Energy trends from July – September 2022 Key to helping understand the market and to forecast for the next year, are the facts and figures to come out of 2022. The UK government recently released a report discussing the energy trends from Q3 (July-September) of 2022. Here are some key points to come out of said report: Fuel imports from Russia continue to drop as the UK stopped importing any Russian LNG (liquified natural gas) from March 2022 onwards. While imports of Russian oil have dropped to 0.4% from 10.2% in 2021. Energy consumption actually increased in the third quarter of 2022. It was up 4.1% from the year before, mostly due to an increase in the consumption of transport fuels. However, it is worth noting that domestic consumption did the opposite. This can be put to a few factors, but the government have based their findings on the assumption that people were spending more time outside, following the end of Covid-19 restrictions. Although, it is important to bear in mind that rising energy prices will have also had an effect on consumption in this period. Qatar remains the largest source of LNG in the UK, accounting for over 50% of imports. The last cargo of LNG from Russia came in March 2022. The UK saw an 18% increase in renewable electricity generation in Q3 2022. Most of this increase was generated by wind generation, thanks to higher wind speeds and new offshore wind capacity. Solar PV electricity generation saw a record high in the UK in Q3 2022. This can be attributed to the longer, warmer summer we experienced last year. Looking ahead into 2023 Upon reflection of the current energy crisis and the statistics produced by the government, it is clear that the energy sector is experiencing a shift. Both in production of electricity and gas but also changes in consumer behaviour. With renewables experiencing a positive upward trend, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that such sources of energy may be the desirable option for governments. Not only because capacity for the generation of renewables is increasing, but also because of the goals in place to reduce carbon emissions over the next few decades.

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme, or EBRS, was announced by the UK Government on the 21st September 2022. It is equivalent to the Energy Price Guarantee, EPG, but applies to businesses in addition to voluntary and public sector organisations. Who is eligible for the EBRS Scheme? In the government’s announcement, they detailed that this scheme would be available on a non-domestic basis only. This means those who are eligible to the EBRS scheme include: businesses voluntary sector organisations, such as charities public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals, and care homes This means a wide majority of D-ENERGi business energy customers will be eligible for the scheme. However, it is important to note that although you may be a business energy customer, there are other requirements that the government explained were necessary for customers to receive support from the scheme. Businesses or organisations must be: on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after 1 December 2021 signing new fixed price contracts on deemed / out of contract or variable tariffs on flexible purchase or similar contracts For those customers who 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. How does the scheme work? The scheme works by the government compensating suppliers for the reduction in wholesale gas and electricity unit prices that they are passing onto non-domestic customers. This means business energy suppliers can reduce the bills of their eligible customers. For those who are eligible the scheme will be applied automatically by your supplier. This means you will notice a reduction in your energy bills. This discount will be calculated in pence per kilowatt hour. 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. Information for D-ENERGi business customers  For customers who qualify for the Energy Bill Relief Scheme we kindly ask all qualifying customers to provide us with monthly gas and / or electricity meter readings until the end of the scheme. This should be done ideally on the first day of the month or no later than the 10th.This will be a great help to get your bills as accurate as possible and ensure we apply the right discount throughout the scheme period.For more information or to discuss your bills with a member of the team, do not hesitate to get in touch with us.