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Protected vs Unprotected: The 6-Month Rule

Two households on the same street, using the same units this month, can pay rates a third apart. The difference is a status decided by the last six bills — and most explanations of it are wrong in ways that cost money.

The definitions, as notified

Protected — “Non-ToU residential consumers consuming 200 kWh per month or less, consistently for the past 6 months” (S.R.O. 1165(I)/2022, Part-II A-1, in force via S.R.O. 1287(I)/2025). Three words in that sentence do the heavy lifting. Non-ToU: a connection with a sanctioned load of 5 kW or more is on Time-of-Use metering and can never be protected, however little it uses. Consistently: it is a test on every month in the window, not an average — five months at 150 and one at 205 is an unprotected household. Past 6 months: the test looks backward, so the bill in your hand was priced by a status earned half a year ago.

Unprotected — everyone else: the default, and the majority. Lifeline — a separate, stricter category: a single-phase connection up to 1 kW whose maximum month in the last twelve — the current month included — is 100 units or less.

Losing it, and getting it back

One month above 200 units does two things: that month is billed at unprotected rates, and the six-month count restarts. Status returns when the trailing six months are all at 200 or below again — so a heavy June means unprotected rates through the autumn, even on modest winter usage. This is the single most common reason a bill “stays high” after usage falls, and it is invisible unless you count months. The checker does the counting and dates the return.

What the status is worth

At exactly 200 units, protected energy is Rs 2,355 against Rs 5,782 unprotected — a difference of Rs 3,427 before the protected band's lower fixed charge and the GST on top widen it further. Protected consumers also price their two bands telescopically (the one slab benefit the tariff allows); unprotected consumers pay every unit at the landing rate — the cliff in action. Protecting the status is usually worth more than any single appliance decision a household makes.

Details that trip people up

Pro-rating: when a reading period runs longer than a calendar month, units are pro-rated for the protected and lifeline tests (your bill shows the reading days) — a 35-day reading of 220 units is not automatically a breach. Estimated bills: a month billed on an estimate still counts as that month's consumption for the test. Category changes: if your bill's tariff code changes, check the category line first — a household wrongly coded unprotected should dispute the coding, not the arithmetic.