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Why Is My Electricity Bill So High?
A bill that jumps is rarely random. Work through the five usual causes in order — each has a fingerprint you can find on the bill itself.
1. You crossed a slab cliff
Fingerprint: usage up modestly, bill up sharply — and the energy charge divided by units equals a higher band's rate. Because unprotected bills price every unit at the landing band, crossing 200, 300 or 500 units reprices the whole month. One unit past 200 costs Rs 871.10 of extra energy; the same mechanism at 700 is worth far more. Check: the cliff guide and the chart. Fix: shave discretionary load near the boundary — at the edge, a few units are worth more than any negotiation.
2. You lost protected status
Fingerprint: usage back to normal, but the rates stayed at unprotected levels — the heavy month was one or more months ago. One month above 200 restarts the six-month count, so summer's excess is paid for into the autumn. Check: count your last six bills in the protected checker; it dates the return. Fix: none retroactively — but knowing the return date stops the mystery, and guarding the next six months is worth roughly Rs 3,400 a month at 200 units.
3. The fuel adjustment spiked
Fingerprint: same usage as a cheaper month, higher total — and the FCA line is fat. The FCA moves monthly with fuel costs and arrives two months late; September 2026's +Rs 2.3673 is adding Rs 838 (GST included) to a 300-unit November bill. Check: the tracker against the fuel month named on your bill. Fix: none — but it is temporary by construction, and next month's decided figure is already knowable.
4. The reading period ran long
Fingerprint: reading days above 31 on the bill. A 35-day “month” carries five extra days of usage into one bill — crossing bands and, un-pro-rated, threatening protected status. The tests pro-rate for long periods, but the units still land in one bill. Check: the reading dates at the top of the bill. Fix: if readings look estimated rather than actual (marked as such), a correction reading is the remedy — call 118.
5. Something about the connection changed
Fingerprint: a new tariff code (a T suffix means Time-of-Use now applies), a changed sanctioned load, or a filer-status change adding the 7.5% advance tax above Rs 25,000. Meter replacements and load regularisations change the fixed charge silently. Check: compare the header block against an old bill, line by line — the reading guide names each field. Fix: a wrong code or load is corrected at the subdivision office with the old bills as evidence.
If none of the five fits, the remaining possibility is a genuine billing error — wrong units, wrong category, wrong method. That is what the bill checker is for: it compares your bill against the notified figures and names the differing line.