Submitting a BICS application isn’t the end of the process, and it’s worth understanding what comes after, partly so the wait doesn’t feel like something’s gone wrong when it’s simply how the scheme is structured.

Once the application window closes at the end of November 2026, the government has said eligibility decisions will be announced in January 2027 — so there’s a wait of a couple of months between submitting and finding out where you stand. That’s not unusually long for a scheme processing this many applications, but it’s worth building into your own planning rather than expecting an immediate answer.

For businesses that are successful, the exemptions themselves don’t start immediately either. Relief from the Renewables Obligation and Feed-in Tariff charges begins in April 2027, and at that point there’s a one-off retrospective payment that backdates the benefit to April 2026 — effectively covering the gap between when the scheme conceptually starts and when the paperwork catches up. The Capacity Market exemption follows separately, from October 2027. It’s a staggered start rather than a single date, and knowing that in advance means the financial benefit can be planned into next year’s budgeting properly rather than assumed as an immediate saving.

Being accepted also isn’t necessarily a one-off event. The guidance describes an ongoing certification process, meaning eligibility isn’t simply granted once and forgotten — businesses need to keep their position current as circumstances change, whether that’s a shift in product mix, a change to how a site’s electricity is used, or simply confirming that the original basis for eligibility still holds. Given how central the electricity-mix calculation is to how much exemption a business actually receives, it’s worth treating that figure as something to monitor on an ongoing basis rather than a number calculated once for the application and then forgotten.

The practical takeaway is that BICS rewards businesses that treat it as a multi-year relationship with a government scheme, not a single form to fill in. Getting the application right in the first place matters most, because there’s no correcting it afterwards — but staying on top of the underlying numbers afterwards is what makes sure the benefit keeps reflecting reality rather than becoming out of date.