Thirty Second Report Contents

Instruments related to COVID-19

Draft Electricity Supplier Obligations (Excluded Electricity) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

1.These draft Regulations propose changes to the legislation underpinning the Energy Intensive Industries (EII) Exemption Scheme, which offers an exemption for eligible companies to receive a discount from their electricity costs to address high energy costs and potential market failures. According to the Department for Business and Trade, EII covers high electricity-using businesses in key foundation industries and industries that are essential to critical national infrastructure and/or form part of the supply chain for other important sectors. EII sectors include steel, paper, plastics, chemicals, cement and glass. The instrument proposes two changes to the eligibility criteria: (i) to give companies applying for the exemption an opportunity to exclude two years (2020 and 2021) of the last five years’ accounts to reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; and (ii) to allow new businesses to apply with one quarter rather than two quarters of trading data, making it easier for them to access relief.





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