Energy Bill Relief Scheme: A guide for businesses

As a non-domestic energy supplier, we’re automatically providing a one-off fixed credit of £150 to all eligible customers across Great Britain and Northern Ireland through HM Government's Non-Domestic Alternative Fuel Payment scheme (ND AFP).

We'll be delivering this support to eligible customers, who are located off the gas grid, between 8 February and 10 March 2023. Most customers will receive the credit on their bill before the end of February, which will appear as a separate line item called ‘Miscellaneous credits and charges’.

If you’re an intermediary, such as a landlord, you’ll be required to pass support through to end users, such as tenants, in a just and reasonable way.

Remember, you do not need to apply for this credit so be aware of scams.

No. However, a smart meter does negate the need to submit manual meter reads, which allows us to apply discounts to bills that are closer to actual than estimated consumption.

This scheme is only guaranteed to be in place for six months and the government has advised businesses to take steps where they can to be more energy efficient. Businesses can start to make energy efficiency improvements by installing a smart meter and gaining real-time insights into their energy use. More information on smart meters is here.

If you don't have a smart meter, we encourage you to submit regular meter reads throughout the support scheme so we can apply discounts to bills that are closer to actual than estimated consumption.

The majority of eligible customers have already received a letter confirming their discount. However, a small number of eligible customer letters are still in the process of being issued.

We’re working hard to apply discounts to eligible bills as quickly as possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch through dedicated EBRS email address noted on your letter.

Please note: It’s possible to meet part of the eligibility criteria (e.g., you fixed your contract price after 1 December 2021) and for your discount to be 0p/kWh, based on the commodity cost thresholds of the scheme.

If your bill cycle end date occurs in October, your bill may not include the EBRS discount. This is because the bill was produced before the introduction of the EBRS legislation. However, you’ll still receive a discount for consumption from 1 October if you meet the eligibility criteria. This will be corrected in future billing.

You should continue to pay your bill in accordance with your contractual terms, and the discount will be automatically added; you don’t have to take any action.

If your Direct Debit has increased, this reflects the price increases that happened before the start of October.

We’re working with the government to roll out EBRS and apply the discount to the relevant customers for consumption from the start of October. This will appear on bills from November onwards, until the end of the support period.

Direct Debit values will be reviewed, taking into account several factors such as the level of discount applied, the credit/debit position on a customer’s account and future estimated consumption.

Discounts in this scheme encompass reductions in green levies. Some bills may still show green levies being charged, but in all cases this charge will be covered by the EBRS discount applied to your bills for eligible energy use.

The unit rate discount is set by the government and will be applied automatically through us as your supplier.

There’s no need to ask your broker to change your contract or agree a new contract. All eligible customers will receive the unit rate discount automatically.

SSE Energy Solutions is a non-domestic energy supplier, so you’re treated as a non-domestic customer under our supply licence. This means you’re not covered by the domestic price cap or entitled to the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) as you’re with a non-domestic supplier.

If you’re a domestic customer and wish to access the Energy Price Guarantee and EBSS, you need to switch to a domestic supplier.

You’ll need to provide us with a current meter reading, and pay any outstanding debt on your account. We can’t make the switch to a domestic supplier for you.

You’ll find a list of relevant domestic supply licence holders on Ofgem’s website for electricity and gas.

You can find all available information on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme on gov.uk. This includes examples of how this discount will apply for different businesses, which you can view here.

While customer support will be delivered by non-domestic suppliers including SSE Energy Solutions, this scheme is being administered by the government.