THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Get ready to shell out more for your power consumption as the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) has approved an average tariff hike of 16 paise per unit for domestic consumers. The new charges will be effective from December 5, 2024, to March 31, 2025.
From April 1, 2025, consumers will have to pay 12 paise more, taking the overall hike to 28 paise per unit on an average in the 2025-26 fiscal.
The fixed charge has also been increased for domestic consumers for the remaining months of the current fiscal and also for 2025-26.
For consumption of 50 to 250 units a month (single phase), the hike in fixed charge ranges from Rs 5 to Rs 15 until March 31, 2025.
A similar hike in the same range will also apply in the 2025-26 fiscal for consumers using between 50 and 250 units of electricity per month. For consumers in the 300 to 500 and above units (single phase) per month, the fixed charge hike ranges from Rs 30 to Rs 40 till March 31, 2025. In the next fiscal, the hike will range from Rs 20 to Rs 30.
According to a senior KSEB official, the 16 paise per unit hike would mean that a consumer with a monthly consumption of 100 units will pay around Rs 15 more per month as energy charges alone.
For a consumer with a monthly consumption of 200 units, the monthly hike in energy charges will be around Rs 34. A consumer with 500 unit consumption a month will have to shell out around Rs 90 more.
Proposal to impose additional summer tariff turned down
KSEB had proposed a 37 paise hike (including summer tariff of 10 paise) per unit for 2024-25 and a 27 paise hike for 2025-26. For 2026-27, the power utility had proposed a hike of nine paise per unit. However, SERC slashed it to 16 paisa for the remaining months of the current fiscal, 12 paise for 2025-26 and allowed no hike for 2026-27.
The commission did not approve KSEB’s proposal to impose an additional summer tariff at the rate of 10 paise per unit. The power utility’s proposal to impose fixed charge based on connected load for domestic consumers was also shot down by the regulatory commission. There is no hike in the meter rent as well.
There will be a 10% cut in energy charges during day time for domestic consumers with monthly consumption of 250 units and above. This will benefit close to five lakh households. However, the commission has approved the KSEB’s recommendation to impose Time of Day (ToD) tariff for domestic consumers with monthly consumption of more than 250 units. This means such consumers will have to pay more for power consumed during peak hours once ToD meters are installed.
The commission approved a 10% cut in the energy charge from 6am to 6pm for small scale industries, benefiting close to 1.5 lakh consumers. Electricity used for agricultural purposes will see a five paise hike per unit. There are around five lakh consumers in this segment.
There will be no hike in energy charges for commercial consumers. In a bid to promote tourism, domestic energy charge will be applicable for farm-stays on the lines of home-stays. Private hostels will get a 30% cut in energy charges. The power tariff for educational institutions owned by the government or run directly by universities has been made on a par with that of government institutions.
Auditoriums, marriage halls and conventional centres will be provided electricity on temporary connection rates, thereby waiving off fixed energy charges. This has been done to dissuade the use of generators that burn fossil fuels and cause environmental pollution.
