Delhi electricity tariff explained (2026)

Delhi's domestic electricity tariff is telescopic, with five energy-charge slabs: ₹3.00 (0–200 units), ₹4.50 (201–400), ₹6.50 (401–800), ₹7.00 (801–1,200) and ₹8.00 (above 1,200) per unit. On top of the energy charge sit a fixed charge of ₹20 (up to 2 kW), ₹50 (2–5 kW), ₹100 (5–15 kW), ₹200 (15–25 kW) and ₹250 (above 25 kW) per kW per month of sanctioned load, an 8% regulatory asset surcharge, and a monthly power purchase adjustment charge (PPAC), which for BSES Rajdhani was 17.94% in June 2026. A 400-unit month on a 3 kW sanctioned load therefore comes to about ₹2,078 before the free-power subsidy and electricity duty, and rooftop solar of 3 kW takes most of that away.

Not yet official. Revised every month; this is the June 2026 figure as reported.

This page works through each line of a Delhi domestic bill and then shows what a rooftop system does to every line. Each figure carries its date and source, because the tariff schedule is old, the PPAC changes monthly, and the free-power subsidy is known only from reports.

The energy charge: five slabs, billed telescopically

Telescopic means each unit is charged at the rate of the slab it falls into, not that the whole month moves to a higher rate once a boundary is crossed. A 400-unit month pays the lowest rate on its first 200 units and the second rate on the next 200. The boundaries sit at 200, 400, 800 and 1,200 units, and the top rate is more than two and a half times the bottom one.

The schedule itself is DERC's tariff order for FY 2021-22, published on 30 September 2021. DERC lists no later order, and secondary sources say the same rates apply in 2026, so this page labels them as the FY 2021-22 schedule wherever it uses them. If DERC publishes a new order, the sources page shows the date we re-checked it.

The slabs are why a Delhi bill rises faster than the units do: going from 300 to 800 units puts the extra 400 units into the third slab, and the surcharges below are then applied to the larger total. The summer air-conditioning guide has the numbers for that jump.

The fixed charge: by sanctioned load, not by use

The fixed charge is ₹20 (up to 2 kW), ₹50 (2–5 kW), ₹100 (5–15 kW), ₹200 (15–25 kW) and ₹250 (above 25 kW) per kW per month. Sanctioned load is printed on the bill; a 3 kW load falls in the 2 to 5 kW band. The charge does not depend on how many units you use, so it appears in a month of zero consumption and, as the solar section below shows, it stays on the bill after a rooftop system is connected.

The regulatory asset surcharge

An 8% surcharge is applied on the energy and fixed charges together. It comes from the same 2021 DERC order and recovers costs DERC has allowed the electricity boards to carry forward from earlier years.

PPAC: the monthly fuel surcharge, different for each board

The power purchase adjustment charge passes changes in the boards' power purchase and fuel costs on to consumers. Under a DERC order of 10 August 2026, reported by ETV Bharat, the boards may revise it every month. In June 2026 it was 17.94% for BSES Rajdhani, 17.43% for BSES Yamuna and 18.50% for Tata Power-DDL, applied on the energy and fixed charges.

Not yet official. Revised every month; this is the June 2026 figure as reported.

Because the figure moves, read the PPAC line on the month's bill rather than taking it from this page. Together the two surcharges add roughly a quarter to the energy and fixed charges, which is why the effective rate per unit is always above the slab rate.

The free-power subsidy

The Delhi government's free-power subsidy, as reported, is 0–200 units a month free; 201–400 units at 50% off, capped at ₹800 a month; you must opt in. It is applied after the tariff lines above, and it is opt-in: households that have not opted in pay the full tariff. In August 2026 the government was reported to be considering an option for consumers to opt out of the subsidy .

Not yet official. Trade and news reports; no DERC or GNCTD order was cited.

Two things follow. A household under 200 units a month pays little beyond the fixed charge, so its saving from solar is smaller than the tariff alone suggests. And the subsidy is written for months of up to 400 units, so a 600 or 800-unit summer month is billed on the full slabs. The zero-upfront scheme page covers the 1 September 2026 Cabinet decision aimed at households under 400 units.

A worked bill: 400 units, 3 kW sanctioned load

Take a BSES Rajdhani home that used 400 units in June 2026 and has a sanctioned load of 3 kW. In words, the bill builds up like this.

The first 200 units are charged at the lowest slab rate and the next 200 at the second rate, so the energy charge is ₹1,500. The fixed charge for a 3 kW load, in the 2 to 5 kW band, is ₹150. Those two lines together come to ₹1,650. The regulatory asset surcharge of 8% on that subtotal is ₹132. The PPAC at BSES Rajdhani's June 2026 rate on the same subtotal is about ₹296. The total is about ₹2,078, which works out to about ₹5.20 per unit, above either slab rate the units were billed at. On BSES Yamuna the same month comes to about ₹2,070, and on Tata Power-DDL about ₹2,087, the only difference being the PPAC.

Two lines are left out. Electricity duty is not modelled. The free-power subsidy, for a household that has opted in, would remove the charge on the first 200 units and halve the next 200 under the reported terms; since no order has been cited for those terms, the calculator shows the tariff bill and leaves the subsidy line for you to compare with your own.

Electricity bill calculatorEnter your units and sanctioned load, pick your board for the PPAC, and see the slab, fixed, surcharge and PPAC lines. Then add a solar size and see the bill after it.Open the tool

How rooftop solar changes each line

Net metering bills you on net units, that is import minus export, so the whole calculation above is redone with a smaller number of units. On the planning yield Verde Solaire publishes, with a 10% derate for dust and heat as a stated assumption, a 3 kW system in Delhi generates about 326 units a month. For the 400-unit home that leaves about 74 net units.

The energy charge falls to ₹222, because all 74 units sit in the first slab. The fixed charge stays at ₹150, because the sanctioned load has not changed. The surcharge and the PPAC, being percentages of a smaller subtotal, fall to about ₹30 and ₹67. The bill comes to about ₹469, a saving of about ₹1,609 a month on the calculator's assumptions. The fixed charge is now the largest line on the bill.

Delhi then adds a credit that no other line has. The generation-based incentive (GBI) is ₹3 per unit for homes up to 3 kW and ₹2 per unit for homes above 3 kW up to 10 kW, paid 5 years from commissioning, paid monthly against the bill; any excess to the bank account. For a 3 kW system on the generation above, that is ₹11,745 a year, credited monthly against the bill. In the example the monthly credit is larger than the bill that remains, so the excess goes to the bank account. The Delhi subsidy page explains how to claim it.

The free-power subsidy interacts with solar in one specific way: it is worked out on net units, that is import minus export. A home that nets 74 units is inside the free band under the reported terms, so the energy charge would be waived, but the fixed charge is billed on load and does not go away. So solar does not make a Delhi bill zero unless the net units stay low enough for the subsidy to take the whole bill.

In summer the effect is larger. A home at 800 units with a 5 kW system nets about 256 units, so the units billed in the third slab disappear first, at the highest rate the home was paying. Size on the twelve-month average, not on June: the system size guide covers it, and the Delhi 3 kW page has the price after subsidy for the system in this example.