Understanding your electricity bill, unit by unit
Slab rates, fixed charges and the fuel surcharge — what each line means and where the real savings hide.
An electricity bill is a stack of small lines that most of us pay without reading. Three of them decide almost everything: units consumed, the slab you land in, and the fixed charges that arrive regardless.
Units are simple — one unit is one kilowatt-hour, an appliance of 1000 watts running for one hour. Slabs are where bills jump: cross a slab boundary and the higher rate applies to the units in that slab, which is why a slightly heavier month can cost noticeably more.
The recurring surprises are the surcharges — fuel adjustment and duties that move with costs beyond your control. You cannot negotiate them, but you can starve them: they are levied on units, so every unit saved discounts every line of the bill.
The highest-return habit is boring: know your daily average. Meters and apps both show it, and a number you watch is a number that falls.
