Power Bill Up, Output Flat: Demand Charges, Power Factor and Idle Heaters on an Indian HT Bill
Why did the power bill go up when output did not? On an HT bill, much of the money is not tied to kilograms. As of 17 Oct 2026, MSEDCL charges ₹650 per kVA a month on billing demand for FY 2026-27 (MERC Case 75 of 2025). One cold-start spike, a power-factor slide and idle heaters can add 17% to a month's bill at the same output.
By the Mama Editorial Team. We write about where Indian factories lose hours and money. Last checked: 17 Oct 2026. Every ₹ figure in the worked example is either a tariff rate with its order cited or a labelled assumption.
Key takeaways
- Only one of three bill engines follows output. Energy follows units; demand follows your worst quarter-hour; power factor sets how many units you are billed.
- One bad quarter-hour sets the month's demand charge in Maharashtra (MSEDCL MYT Order, Case 217 of 2024), and floors billing demand for 11 more months.
- Power factor bites two ways. Maharashtra and Haryana bill HT energy in kVAh; Gujarat adds a penalty below 90%.
- Evening hours cost more. MERC adds 20% of the energy charge from 17:00 to 24:00 in FY 2026-27; GERC adds 45–85 paise per unit in two peak windows.
- In the worked example, ₹/kg rises from ₹7.49 to ₹8.76 with output unchanged. The extra ₹3.04 lakh in the month comes from a demand spike, a power-factor slide and idle heaters, in roughly that order.
- Cameras show what was switched on and when, not kVA or power factor.
What this page covers and what it does not
Idle running is covered in the energy bill cameras can explain and priced by the idle machine energy cost calculator. This page is about the tariff: why the same kilograms can cost more.
The lines on your HT bill, from the FY 2026-27 orders
HT industrial supply at 11 kV, FY 2026-27, excluding electricity duty and taxes.
| Item | Maharashtra (MERC, MSEDCL HT I(A)) | Gujarat (GERC, DGVCL/MGVCL/PGVCL/UGVCL HTP-I) | Haryana (HERC, UHBVN/DHBVN HT supply) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demand / fixed charge (₹/kVA/month) | 650 on billing demand | 150 for the first 500 kVA, 260 for the next 500, 475 above 1,000 | 290 on sanctioned contract demand |
| Energy charge | ₹8.44/kVAh + ₹0.81/kVAh wheeling | 400 paise/kWh up to 500 kVA billing demand; 420 paise from 500 to 2,500 kVA; plus FPPAS | 695 paise/kVAh at 11 kV |
| How power factor bites | kVAh billing for all HT since 1 Apr 2020 | Penalty of 1% of energy charges per 1% below 90%, 2% per 1% below 85%; rebate 0.5% per 1% above 95% | kVAh billing |
| Time of day | Solar 09:00–17:00: −15% (Apr–Sep), −25% (Oct–Mar) of energy charge; 17:00–24:00: +20% | +45 paise (billing demand up to 500 kVA) or +85 paise (above 500 kVA) in 07:00–11:00 and 18:00–22:00; −60 paise in 11:00–17:00 | — |
| Billing demand floor | Higher of actual maximum demand (06:00–22:00), 75% of the highest billing demand in the past 11 months, 75% of contract demand | Highest of actual maximum demand, 85% of contract demand, 100 kVA | Fixed charge is on contract demand, not recorded demand |
| Exceeding contract demand | Extra 150% of the demand charge on the excess | ₹555/kVA on the excess | — |
The sources, dated:
- Maharashtra. Rates for FY 2026-27, effective 1 Apr 2026, are from the MERC order of 25 Mar 2026 in Case 75 of 2025 (page 100; ToD para 18.13). Billing-demand and excess-demand rules: MSEDCL MYT Order of 28 Mar 2025, Case 217 of 2024, pages 785–788.
- Gujarat. GERC tariff schedule for the four state DISCOMs, effective 1 Apr 2026, Rate HTP-I. FPPAS is set by formula; read it off your bill.
- Haryana. HERC order of 25 Mar 2026, as published in UHBVN Sales Circular U-03/2026 of 21 Apr 2026; unchanged from FY 2025-26, excluding fuel surcharge (FSA).
- Tamil Nadu. No TNERC tariff order for FY 2026-27 was found (checked 17 Oct 2026; the TNERC website did not respond). The latest revision found was reported by Mercom India on 4 Jul 2025 as a rise of about 3.16% for commercial and industrial consumers; no HT rate from it is used here.
In Gujarat, demand is cheap for the first 500 kVA, so energy, FPPAS and peak hours drive the bill. In Haryana, an oversized contract demand costs you every month however you run.
Demand charges: one quarter-hour sets the month
MSEDCL's MYT Order defines maximum demand as four times the highest kVAh drawn in any 15-minute block (twice, for 30-minute blocks). Only demand recorded between 06:00 and 22:00 counts toward billing demand.
In moulding or extrusion, the worst quarter-hour usually comes at start-up: after a Sunday shutdown, barrel heaters, chillers, dryers and the compressor come on together.
The cost then lasts. Under MERC's rule, billing demand for the next 11 months cannot fall below 75% of that month's billing demand, capped at contract demand. And if you exceed contract demand, MSEDCL bills the excess kVA at an extra 150% of the demand charge. Exceeding it more than three times in a calendar year allows the licensee to raise your contract demand after 15 days' notice (MYT Order, page 785).
The fix is free. The AMI/Tangram energy guide for injection moulding recommends start-up check sheets that "bring the biggest energy users, such as main motors, on line at the latest possible time." Stagger heater banks by a few minutes.
Power factor: kVAh billing makes it automatic
When HT energy is billed in kVAh, billed units are roughly kWh divided by your average power factor. At 0.97 power factor, 1,00,000 kWh bills as about 1,03,100 kVAh. At 0.90 it bills as about 1,11,100 kVAh, which is 7.8% more for the same work.
MERC has applied kVAh billing to all HT consumers since 1 April 2020 (Case 75 of 2025, para 4.6.14). MSEDCL's stated reason is that kVAh billing "automatically takes care of power factor incentive and disincentive" (para 4.6.9). The schedule circular for Haryana is also written in kVAh.
Power factor slips quietly: a blown capacitor fuse, an APFC panel stuck in manual. It shows only in billed kVAh, or in Gujarat as a penalty line.
Time of day: the evening idle hour now costs more
MERC's FY 2026-27 slabs give a rebate of 25% of the energy charge in solar hours (09:00–17:00) from October to March and 15% from April to September. They add 20% from 17:00 to midnight. The ₹0.80 night rebate (22:00–06:00) was removed (Case 75 of 2025, paras 18.13–18.14).
A heater bank held at temperature from 18:00 to 21:00 while a mould is repaired is billed at the peak rate. In Gujarat, the evening window carries 45–85 paise extra and 11:00–17:00 earns 60 paise off.
Why ₹/kg rises even when the bill does not
Energy in a moulding plant has a fixed part. The AMI/Tangram guide models plant energy as variable load times production plus a base load. "For most molding sites it will be between 20% and 40% of total energy usage." On standard hydraulic machines, base load "can amount to 75% or more" of a machine's consumption. On all-electric and hybrid machines it is 10–20%, "largely accounted for by barrel heating."
So when output falls, ₹/kg rises even if the bill falls. Assume the base load is 30% of energy and the demand charge stays put. A 15% drop in kilograms then lowers the bill by about 9% but raises electricity cost per kg, energy plus demand, by about 7%. The bill alone hides that.
Worked example: an assumed 500 kVA moulding plant in Maharashtra
The plant is hypothetical. It has 500 kVA contract demand on MSEDCL HT I(A) at 11 kV and makes 2,40,000 kg of good mouldings in a November month, in both cases. Tariff rates are from the MERC FY 2026-27 schedule above.
Assumptions:
- 1,60,000 kWh a month in the normal month.
- 30% of kVAh in solar hours and 30% in the evening peak.
- Six presses with idle barrel heaters at about 10 kW each, held 3 hours a day in the evening peak on 26 days. That is 4,680 kWh.
- kVAh is taken as kWh ÷ average power factor.
- Electricity duty and the fuel adjustment are excluded.
| Line (one month) | Month A: normal | Month B: same output | Change (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Units (kWh) | 1,60,000 | 1,64,680 (idle heaters) | — |
| Average power factor | 0.97 | 0.90 (APFC fault) | — |
| Billed kVAh | 1,64,948 | 1,82,978 | — |
| Energy + wheeling at ₹9.25/kVAh (₹) | 15,25,769 | 16,92,547 | +1,66,778 |
| ToD net, MERC Oct–Mar slabs (₹) | −20,882 | −13,729 | +7,153 |
| Recorded maximum demand (kVA) | 450 | 560 (Monday cold start) | — |
| Demand charge at ₹650/kVA (₹) | 2,92,500 | 3,64,000 | +71,500 |
| Excess over 500 kVA: 60 kVA × ₹650 × 150% (₹) | 0 | 58,500 | +58,500 |
| Total before duty and fuel adjustment (₹) | 17,97,387 | 21,01,318 | +3,03,931 |
| Electricity cost per kg (₹/kg) | 7.49 | 8.76 | +1.27 |
Taken one at a time against Month A, the cold-start spike costs ₹1.30 lakh, the power-factor slide ₹1.17 lakh and the idle heaters about ₹0.53 lakh. The three add up to slightly less than the total because they compound.
The spike also lasts beyond the month. Billing demand cannot drop below 420 kVA (75% of 560) for the next 11 months. A plant that later runs at a 400 kVA peak still pays for 420.
Check your own figures with the energy per unit calculator. For moulding-specific losses beyond power, see cameras in injection-moulding units. Extrusion owners can compare where a pipe extrusion plant loses money per tonne.
Reading your bill in 20 minutes
- Compare billing demand with recorded maximum demand. If billing is higher, you are paying the floor.
- Get the time of the maximum demand from the DISCOM's 15-minute load survey. A peak in a shift's first half-hour is a start-up problem.
- Divide kWh by kVAh for average power factor. Below about 0.95, check the APFC panel.
- Split units by ToD slot and ask what was running in the evening peak.
- Divide by good kilograms. Track ₹/kg month by month, not the bill total.
What cameras can and cannot tell you here
Cameras cannot read kVA, kVAh, power factor or maximum demand. None of that is visible. Only the meter, its load survey and the bill carry those numbers.
Cameras can show what was switched on and when. They show whether presses sat with heaters lit and nobody moulding, whether every machine was started in the same five minutes, and whether a line was held hot through the evening peak while a mould was on the bench. Put the meter's peak quarter-hour next to the footage for that quarter-hour and the cause usually becomes clear.
Heaters, ovens and dryers look the same on video on or off, unless a camera sees their lamps or screens. Footage of recognisable workers is personal data under s.2(t) of the DPDP Act, 2023; tell workers in writing what is recorded and why (see the worker CCTV notice under DPDP).
Where Mama fits
Mama reads a factory's existing cameras and sends the owner a short note each morning. The note says which machines sat ready with nothing produced, when start-ups bunched together and how long lines were held hot during idle stretches. It is about machines, not individuals. Lined up against your meter data, it shows which events behind a high bill can be fixed on the floor. To see what that would look like for your plant, leave an email or phone in the form below.
FAQ
My bill went up but units consumed are almost the same. What should I check first? Check billing demand first, then the kVAh-to-kWh ratio. In Maharashtra, a single 15-minute spike or the 75% floor from an earlier peak can raise the demand line at ₹650 per kVA a month (MERC, FY 2026-27). In kVAh states, a falling power factor raises billed units without any change in work done.
Does reducing contract demand lower my bill? In Haryana it does directly, because the ₹290/kVA fixed charge is on sanctioned contract demand (UHBVN circular U-03/2026). In Maharashtra and Gujarat the floor is a percentage of contract demand: 75% and 85% respectively. An oversized contract therefore costs money even in quiet months. Undersize it, though, and you pay excess-demand penalties.
Is a night shift still cheaper in Maharashtra? Not because of ToD. MERC removed the ₹0.80 night rebate (22:00–06:00); the cheapest hours in FY 2026-27 are 09:00–17:00.
Will switching to all-electric presses fix this? They cut base load (10–20% against 75% or more for standard hydraulic, per AMI/Tangram). They do not stop cold-start spikes or power-factor losses.
Can Mama measure my maximum demand or power factor? No. Those come from the energy meter and the DISCOM's load survey. Camera footage can only show which machines were running in the quarter-hour the meter flags.