From the UK Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) ending in March, to changes from the Targeted Charging Review coming into effect alongside the removal of Guarantee of Origin certificates (GoOs) from April, there’s a lot happening in the energy industry. We’ve summarised the main things you and your business need to know, to help you navigate these changes.

Read on to learn more about the changing energy market, as well as the latest in the world of renewables and sustainability.

Energy Bills Discount Scheme

With the UK Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) coming to an end in March, it is important to begin planning ahead. The Energy Bill Discount Scheme (EBDS) will replace the scheme, running from 1^st April 2023 – 31^st March 2024, to help support businesses with the cost of wholesale energy for an additional 12 months.

Eligible non-domestic consumers will receive a per-unit discount to their electricity bills during the 12-month period, subject to a maximum discount, and those in energy and trade intensive sectors are set to receive a higher level of support.

However, it should be noted that there will be a reduction in the level of support for businesses facing high energy costs, and for many eligible businesses the discount looks likely to fall below 2p per kWh.

The full details are yet to be announced, but we’ll be updating customers when we can. In the meantime, we’ll be sharing any further information on our website.

The Targeted Charging Review

April will also see changes related to Ofgem’s Targeted Charging Review (TCR) come into effect. The TCR has established a new system by which network owners charge energy customers for the use of the electricity networks in the UK, replacing a Triad consumption-based system for a banding-based daily charging system.

Changes to the Distribution Use of System (DUoS) tariffs went live in April 2022 and, following some delays, changes to the Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) tariffs will come into effect from April 2023.

We look at how upcoming changes to the TNUoS charges could impact businesses, especially Bryt Energy customers, in our latest article.

Guarantees of Origin Certificates

Another change to be aware of is that, from April 1^st 2023, the UK will no longer recognise EU Guarantees of Origin (GoO) certificates.

European GoOs are certificates purchased by electricity suppliers as proof that the electricity supplied to their customers has been matched with verified, renewable sources. With GoOs no longer being recognised from this April, we discuss what this change could mean to your business, and how we’ve prepared to support our customers, in our blog.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, launched last month, has published its list of “priority outcomes”¹. Echoed by Secretary Grant Shapps in a recent speech², the priorities signal a clear focus on decarbonisation, energy independence and economic growth.  The list includes:

• Ensuring energy supply security to help bring down energy bills
• Making sure the UK is on track to meet its net zero commitments by accelerating the delivery of network infrastructure and domestic energy production
• Improving the energy efficiency of non-domestic buildings and homes, to help meet the 15% national demand reduction target
• Developing options for long-term reform to improve how the electricity market works
• Seizing the economic benefits of net zero – including jobs and growth in “green industries”
• Passing the Energy Security Bill to support the hydrogen sector and new carbon capture technologies, as well as reducing the time taken to approve offshore wind.

The department will also be charged with delivering current schemes, such as the EBDS discussed above.

In last month’s Bryt Insight we discussed the net zero review, which contained 129 recommendations to help the UK Government deliver a “pro-business” pathway to net zero. The new department will be responsible for reviewing and implementing these recommendations. These include creating a roadmap for net zero technology as well as reviewing the tax system to see how it could better incentivise decarbonisation.

Measures to help businesses use less energy will be one of the key focuses of the UK Government’s newly-launched Energy Efficiency Taskforce³.

The Taskforce was announced last November at the Autumn Statement and launched last month. It has been tasked with finding ways to reduce national energy consumption by 15% from 2021 levels by 2030 across industrial processes, as well as commercial and residential buildings. Its brief includes contributing to the design and allocation of future funding schemes.

NatWest Group CEO Alison Rose will co-chair the Taskforce with Lord Callanan, who is currently Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The case for wider energy storage and optimisation has been strengthened after figures showed the UK had 1.35TWh of excess wind capacity curtailed between October 2022 and January this year⁴.

The additional wind energy would have been enough to power 1.2 million homes and coincided with a winter period in which the UK imported more than £60 billion of gas. This shows just how much of an impact nationwide energy storage and optimisation could have on the UK’s energy use and mix.

Meanwhile, the importance of battery storage to the energy transition was also recognised with a strong set of results in the UK’s capacity auctions for 2023.

The UK’s Capacity Market, which incentivises providers through payments set at auctions to keep electricity resources ready to help meet the country’s security of electricity supply, concluded its 2023 auctions late last month. In the T-4 (four years ahead) auction, battery storage won 1.29GW of the 46.03GW of total awarded contracts⁵. It followed the T-1 (one year ahead) auction where battery storage secured 627MW out of the total 5.78GW awarded⁶.

Both auctions saw year-on-year increases in contracts awarded to battery storage – a huge vote of confidence in its importance to the UK’s net zero transition.

A suite of introductory-level learning resources, designed by the UK Green Building Council to build business knowledge and confidence on sustainability topics, has been launched⁷.

The bitesize guides cover topics such as Scope 1, 2 and 3 Emissions, Renewable Energy, and Net Zero Carbon Buildings and Infrastructure. Although some topics are tailored for property and construction sector workers, the explainers are useful for all professionals looking to play their part in the net zero transition. You can access the guides here.

Last year saw the record for new UK offshore wind capacity “smashed”, according to new research published by RenewableUK⁸. It says three major offshore wind projects went fully operational in 2022, adding 3.2GW of new capacity – enough to power 3.2 million homes. This broke the previous annual record of 2.1GW set in 2018, and was significantly higher than the 48MW commissioned in 2021.

There is also more good news for UK offshore wind, with the pipeline of projects at all stages of development about to hit 100GW⁹, according to RenewableUK’s Energy Pulse. It added that the UK retains the second largest offshore wind pipeline globally, accounting for 8.5% of the world’s 1,174GW total.

In other positive news for wind, turbine blades could be reused instead of ending up in landfill, thanks to a new solution unveiled by manufacturer Vestas¹⁰. A newly discovered chemical technology, which breaks down hard-to-recycle epoxy resin used in blades, can be applied to those currently in operation, meaning they can be disassembled and reused. It’s encouraging to see sustainability options now available and a huge boost to the industry, which had been searching for a solution to avoid thousands of epoxy-based blades from ending up in landfill.

Almost 20,000 UK businesses are operating within the net zero economy and adding £71 billion (3.7%) to UK gross value added (GVA) – a measure of the value of goods and services produced¹¹.

The report by CBI Economics and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), Mapping the net zero economy, adds that these businesses are also supporting 840,000 jobs.

These figures demonstrate the potential value of the net zero transition, and its benefits to the UK economy as a whole.

• The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) remained below pre-pandemic levels in 2021 according to official figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS)¹². However, the 427 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (MtCO₂e) was up 5% on the 2020 figure – with the Government saying the easing of COVID-19 restrictions had a significant impact. The rise illustrates that there is still work to be done for businesses coming out of the pandemic to re-evaluate their energy usage and optimise their operations. For more information about the benefits of optimisation to your business, click here.

• The Government has awarded £12.4 million to 22 projects across energy-intensive industries to help them cut their emissions – something which will be vital to hitting the UK’s net zero 2050 target¹³. The latest round of grants from the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF) have been awarded to businesses across a range of key sub-sectors, including companies producing tarmac, lightweight vehicles and food. You can find out more about the IETF application process, by clicking here.

• Employees would leave businesses that fail to showcase strong social and environmental values, according to research from former Unilever chief executive Paul Polman. The Net Positive Employee Barometer¹⁴, launched last month, surveyed more than 4,000 workers across the UK and USA. It found 68% of UK employees are not currently satisfied with corporate efforts to improve societal wellbeing and the environment. The report also described an era of “conscious quitting”, finding 45% of respondents would consider resigning if the company’s values did not align with their own, and 35% had resigned from another job for this reason. It shows most people want to work in companies that have a positive impact on the world – a belief we share. Our 2022 Bryt by Nature report shows how we work to make Bryt Energy a positive, diverse and inclusive place to work, including initiatives such as paying a Living Wage and offering sustainable travel polices to staff. And we are seeing the impact of these initiatives, with 98% of our employees saying they are committed to our sustainability journey in our 2022 employee survey.

If you have any questions on how any of the updates might affect your business, our team of experts is on hand to answer them. You can get in touch with us on 03300538620 or at heretohelp@brytenergy.co.uk.