Applications open on 1 October 2026 and run for a two-month window, closing on 30 November 2026. There's a fair bit of detail in the official guidance, so we've pulled together what matters and what to actually do about it, rather than leaving you to work through it alone.

Here's what BICS actually does, who it's for, and what's worth doing now so you're ready to make the most of it.

What BICS removes from your bill

BICS works as a levy exemption. For a qualifying manufacturer, it strips three costs out of the electricity bill:

• The Renewables Obligation (RO), which funds large-scale renewable generation like wind and solar farms.

• The Feed-in Tariff (FiT), which funds smaller-scale generation, mostly rooftop solar and small wind turbines.

• The Capacity Market (CM) levy, which pays generators, batteries, inter-connectors and demand-side providers to stay on standby for when the grid is under strain.

You've probably never seen these three named on a bill. BICS is a chance to actually see these costs, and have some or all of them removed if you qualify. It's the same idea behind how P442 works for business customers: a cost that's real and government-set, pulled out into the open rather than left buried.

Who qualifies

All four of these have to be true:

1. Your business is registered at Companies House.

2. You operate in an eligible manufacturing sector, defined by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.

3. You manufacture eligible products in Great Britain, defined by a published list of commodity (HS) codes.

4. Your site draws more than 33 megawatt hours of grid-supplied electricity a year.

That last one only counts what you pull from the grid. Anything you generate on site doesn't count towards the 33 MWh threshold, and the relief only applies to the grid-supplied share.

Mixed sites, where one site makes both eligible and ineligible products, get a sliding scale instead of a straight yes or no:

If you're a mixed site, working out that percentage is the main piece of homework. It's worth doing early: once you've got a clear method written down, the rest of the application is mostly filling in what you already know.

What to do, and when

Now: run your site through the government's eligibility checker, and if you're a mixed site, start working out your eligible-use share. You'll need to explain your method in writing as part of the application.

Before 1 October: gather your paperwork against the government's evidence checklist: company and site information, your most recent electricity bills, and documentation proving eligible production at your site.

1 October to 30 November: apply. You submit the application yourself, since the declarations need to sit with your business rather than your supplier.

Note: If you'd rather have your energy partner handle it, they can apply on your behalf as long as you've formally authorised them to.

It's a two-month window, and worth treating like one: busy sites can lose those weeks to the daily grind, so it's worth having the eligibility check and paperwork sorted before 1 October rather than during it. Get your application approved in during this round and you also qualify for the one-off backdated payment covering support back to April 2026.

What happens after you apply

In January 2027, government confirms which businesses are eligible and notifies your supplier directly, so there's nothing for you to chase. Relief on the RO and FiT starts on invoices from April 2027, with CM relief following in October 2027. Businesses confirmed eligible in this first window also get a one-off payment during 2027, covering what they'd have saved since April 2026.

Signing a fixed contract now doesn't cost you BICS

The question we hear most from manufacturers weighing a new contract is whether locking in a price now means missing out on the relief later. Good news: it doesn't. If your site is confirmed eligible, we apply BICS on the scheme's own timeline, on top of the contract you're already on, so signing today doesn't close any doors.

The application window is two months, the eligibility checker itself takes a few minutes. Today's as good a day as any to find out if BICS applies to you: run your site through the checker.