The Energy Bills Discount Scheme Pass-through Requirement Regulations 2023

PART 1 Introductory

Citation, commencement and extent

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Energy Bills Discount Scheme Pass-through Requirement Regulations 2023 and come into force on 26th April 2023.

(2) These Regulations extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Interpretation

2.  In these Regulations—

“billing period” means in relation to a supply contract, a period of energy supply in respect of which, under the terms of the supply contract, the supplier is obliged or entitled to send to the customer an invoice or other statement of account;

“current period” means, in relation to a supply redetermination event, the period in which a relevant intermediary is provided with an SRE adjustment;

“customer” means—

(a)

in England, Wales and Scotland, a person supplied or to be supplied by a supplier with electricity by way of GB non-domestic electricity supply(1) or gas by way of GB non-domestic gas supply(2); or

(b)

in Northern Ireland—

(i)

a person, other than an excluded electricity consumer, supplied or to be supplied by a supplier with electricity by way of NI non-domestic electricity supply;

(ii)

a person supplied or to be supplied by a supplier with gas by way of NI non-domestic gas supply;

“deemed contract”—

(a)

in England, Wales and Scotland, has the meaning given in the relevant standard conditions(3);

(b)

in Northern Ireland, means as between a relevant supplier and a customer, a contract for the supply of electricity or gas (as applicable) deemed to have been made under paragraph 3 of Schedule 6 to the Electricity (Northern Ireland) Order 1992(4) (in respect of the supply of electricity) or section 12 of the Energy Act (Northern Ireland) 2011(5) (in respect of the supply of gas);

“deemed supply contract” has the meaning given in regulation 23(2) of the EBDS Regulations or regulation 24(2) of the NI EBDS Regulations;

“discount” means the reduction (in p/kWh) in the supply price under a supply contract to be applied under the scheme in respect of that contract, determined under regulation 29 of the EBDS Regulations or regulation 30 of the NI EBDS Regulations;

“EBDS Regulations” means the Energy Bills Discount Scheme Regulations 2023(6);

“electricity scheme” means—

(a)

in England, Wales and Scotland the support scheme(7) in respect of GB non-domestic electricity supply provided for in the EBDS Regulations, or

(b)

in Northern Ireland the support scheme in respect of NI non-domestic electricity supply provided for in the NI EBDS Regulations;

“end user” means an end user as defined in section 19(3) of the Energy Prices Act 2022 other than an excluded end user;

“energy products” means heating or hot water (or both);

“excluded electricity consumer” means a person that—

(a)

takes a supply of electricity that is NI non-domestic electricity supply within paragraph (a) of the definition of that term, but

(b)

is eligible for a reduction in charges for supply under a domestic electricity price reduction scheme for Northern Ireland established by the Secretary of State under section 5 of the Energy Prices Act 2022.

“excluded end user” means a person to whom a relevant intermediary located in Northern Ireland supplies or makes available energy or energy products (or both) at premises located outside England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland;

“excluded person” means a person engaged in the provision of either or both of—

(a)

accommodation within the meaning of standard industrial classification divisions 55.1, 55.2, 55.3 (except relevant accommodation providers) and 55.9 (except persons providing student residences, school dormitories, workers hostels and rooming and boarding houses),

(b)

energy(8) or energy products (or both) to such accommodation;

“first scheme period” means the period from 1st April 2023 to 30th September 2023 inclusive;

“gas scheme” means—

(a)

in England, Wales and Scotland, the support scheme in respect of GB non-domestic gas supply provided for in the EBDS Regulations, or

(b)

in Northern Ireland, the support scheme in respect of NI non-domestic gas supply provided for in the NI EBDS Regulations.

“heating” means heating provided through a heat network;

“heat network” means a network that, by distributing a liquid or a gas, enables the transfer of thermal energy for the purpose of supplying heating or hot water to a building or persons in that building (and a network is not excluded from being a heat network only by reason of its being designed to rely wholly or in part on heat pumps particular to the buildings or premises served by the network);

“hot water” means hot water provided through a heat network;

“NI EBDS Regulations” means the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2023(9);

“NI non-domestic electricity supply” means the supply of electricity in Northern Ireland—

(a)

to premises at which the supply is not taken wholly or mainly for a domestic purpose, or

(b)

for which the tariff is not one that the supplier applies to supply taken wholly or mainly for a domestic purpose;

“NI non-domestic gas supply” means the supply of gas to premises where that supply is not NI domestic gas supply (as defined in the Energy Prices (Domestic Supply) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2022(10);

“opt-out notice” means a notice given for the purposes of regulation 4(3) of the EBDS Regulations or the NI EBDS Regulations in which a customer gives notice to a supplier that no discount is to apply in respect of energy supplied under a supply contract between them from the date specified in the notice;

“original end user” means the end user to whom a relevant intermediary effected a pass-through in respect of a previous period;

“pass-through” means the act of a relevant intermediary of passing through all or part of a scheme benefit or SRE adjustment to an end user;

“pass-through amount” means an amount, being all or part of a scheme benefit or SRE adjustment, which is passed through to an end user by a relevant intermediary under these Regulations;

“period” in relation to—

(a)

a scheme benefit falling under sub-paragraph (a) of the definition of that term in this regulation, means a billing period, and

(b)

a pass-through amount, means the period in connection with which such pass-through was effected;

“previous period” means, in relation to a supply redetermination event, a period in respect of which a scheme benefit has been provided to a relevant intermediary before the current period;

“relevant accommodation providers” means—

(a)

in England, Wales and Scotland, persons providing mobile homes on protected sites as defined in the Mobile Homes Act 1983(11), or

(b)

in Northern Ireland, persons providing caravans on protected sites defined in the Caravans Act (Northern Ireland) 2011(12);

“relevant intermediary” means a person to whom a scheme benefit has been provided in circumstances in which there is one or more end user other than the relevant intermediary, except where and to the extent that person—

(a)

is an excluded person, or

(b)

is an “intermediary” as defined in regulation 2(1) of the Energy Bills Discount Scheme Pass-through Requirement (Heat Suppliers) Regulations 2023(13),

and for the purpose of regulation 3, “relevant intermediary” includes a person who will have entitlement to have a scheme benefit provided to it but to whom it has not yet been so provided;

“scheme” means the electricity scheme or the gas scheme;

“scheme benefit” means—

(a)

discount applied to the price under a supply contract by application of the EBDS Regulations or the NI EBDS Regulations where the amount of the scheme benefit is the amount of the discount as notified by a supplier to the relevant intermediary in its capacity as customer of that supplier under regulation 30(1)(d) of the EBDS Regulations or the NI EBDS Regulations, or

(b)

where the end user is also a relevant intermediary, a pass-through made under these Regulations where the amount of the scheme benefit is the pass-through amount provided to the end user concerned (as intermediary),

and the amount of the scheme benefit—

(i) may be an amount in pounds sterling or in pounds sterling per kWh (as appropriate) of energy or energy products (or both),

(ii) may have been provided in respect of a period before these Regulations came into force (other than a scheme benefit in relation to which regulations 4(1) and 6(2) apply), and

(iii) excludes any SRE adjustment for the relevant period;

“scheme period” means the first scheme period or the second scheme period;

“second scheme period” means the period from 1st October 2023 to 31st March 2024 inclusive;

“SRE adjustment” means an amount in pounds sterling that represents an increase or decrease in the scheme benefit for the previous period;

“standard industrial classification” means the Office for National Statistics’ “UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities 2007 (SIC 2007)”(14);

“supplier” means a licensed electricity supplier(15) or a licensed gas supplier(16);

“supply contract” means a contract (and treating a deemed supply contract as a separate supply contract) between a supplier and a customer which provides for—

(a)

GB non-domestic electricity supply or NI non-domestic electricity supply, or

(b)

GB non-domestic gas supply or NI non-domestic gas supply,

at any time during a scheme period and includes—

(i) a deemed contract, and

(ii) a supply contract that continues to apply to a customer, and under which the supplier continues to supply energy to that customer, after it has been terminated or has expired through the passage of time;

“supply price” has the meaning given in regulation 8 of the EBDS Regulations or the NI EBDS Regulations;

“supply redetermination event” or “SRE” has the meaning given in regulation 24(1) of the EBDS Regulations or the NI EBDS Regulations;

“usage” means the quantity of—

(c)

energy in respect of which a scheme benefit has been provided, or

(d)

energy products produced using energy in respect of which a scheme benefit has been provided,

made available by a relevant intermediary to an end user.

(1)

Defined in the Energy Prices Act 2022, section 10(4).

(2)

Defined in the Energy Prices Act 2022, section 10(8).

(3)

Defined in the Energy Prices Act 2022, section 10(5) in relation to GB non-domestic electricity supply and s.10(9) in relation to GB non-domestic gas supply.

(4)

S.I. 1992/231 (N.I. 1). Schedule 6 was substituted by Electricity Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007 No 321), regulation 5(2) and Schedule 1.

(5)

2011 c. (N.I.)6.

(6)

S.I. 2023/453.

(7)

Defined in Schedule 1, paragraph 1 to the Energy Prices Act 2022.

(8)

“Energy” is defined in section 28(4) of the Energy Prices Act 2022.

(9)

S.I. 2023/454.

(10)

S.I. 2022/1105.

(11)

1983 c. 34. Section 5 was amended by sections 318 and 321(1) of, and Schedule 16 to the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (c. 17).

(12)

2011 c. 12 (N.I.).

(13)

S.I. 2023/455.

(14)

Published by the Office for National Statistics. For information on how to obtain a hard copy, contact the Office for National Statistics, Classifications and Harmonisation Unit, Government Buildings, Cardiff Road, Newport, South Wales, NP10 8XG. For an electronic copy, see https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/classificationsandstandards/ukstandardindustrialclassificationofeconomicactivities/uksic2007.

(15)

Defined in section 10(2) of the Energy Prices Act 2022 for England and Wales and Scotland and section 12(2) of that Act for Northern Ireland.

(16)

Defined in section 10(6) of the Energy Prices Act 2022 for England and Wales and Scotland and section 12(5) of that Act for Northern Ireland.