The Department for the Economy has made the Energy Bill Relief Scheme and Energy Bills Discount Scheme (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 (SR 2026/23). The instrument was made on 16 February 2026 and comes into force on 9 March 2026, providing a structured wind‑down of statutory discounts for non‑domestic energy users in Northern Ireland.
A new “discount duties end date” is created for each supplier. It is defined as the later of the supplier’s reconciliation run‑off date or the commencement of these Regulations on 9 March 2026. From that point, the general duty to apply discounts under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (NI) Regulations 2022 and the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (NI) Regulations 2023 no longer applies in most cases.
Customer protections remain in three specified situations. First, where the supplier has already billed the customer before the end date, the duty to discount still applies to that billed energy. Second, it continues to apply to energy supplied in any billing period for which the customer has not yet been billed before the end date. Third, where unreasonable delay or other failure by the supplier meant the customer was not billed accurately or at all before the end date, the supplier must still apply the appropriate reductions.
The Regulations also update provisions dealing with customers who have entered arrangements that increase their exposure to wholesale prices. After the discount duties end date, the earlier qualifier limiting this to variable price contracts is treated as omitted, broadening the circumstances in which the duty to discount does not apply. The same three customer protections for pre‑billed, unbilled‑period and supplier‑delay cases continue to apply.
On dispute handling, matters arising from determinations made by suppliers under these new end‑date and increased‑exposure provisions cannot be referred to the Secretary of State under the usual route in the EBRS/EBDS regulations. In those cases, the supplier’s determination remains effective unless set aside by a different legal process.
In practice, the supplier‑specific reconciliation run‑off date marks the operational close of scheme accounting with administrators. By tying the legal end of discount duties to the later of that date or commencement, the Regulations remove open‑ended liabilities for suppliers while ensuring discounts are still applied where energy was already billed or due to be billed under the schemes’ timeframes.
Suppliers should ensure billing and reconciliation systems recognise the discount duties end date and retain audit evidence where relying on the ‘unreasonable delay’ safeguard. Contracting and compliance teams will need to align back‑billing rules, credit notes and final reconciliations so that discounts due for unbilled periods are honoured without prompting.
Non‑domestic customers should expect EBRS/EBDS lines to fall away for usage after 9 March 2026. Discounts remain due for energy already billed, for unbilled periods that pre‑date the end date, and where supplier delay or error suppressed accurate billing. Finance leads may wish to cross‑check March invoices and meter data to confirm any residual support has been applied.
The amendment does not reopen eligibility windows or create new entitlements. EBRS supported non‑domestic bills from October 2022 to March 2023 and EBDS from April 2023 to March 2024, both made under the Energy Prices Act 2022. The Northern Ireland changes align the wind‑down mechanics with similar clarifications previously made for Great Britain to support an orderly exit from emergency support.