NEPRA has introduced tiered monthly fixed charges based on usage. See exactly how much extra you are paying.
If you have recently checked your Mepco bill, you likely noticed a new line item: Fixed Charges. The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has completely overhauled the tariff structure to include mandatory monthly capacity charges, drastically changing how total electricity costs are calculated across Pakistan.
If you recently checked your Mepco bill and saw a sudden, unexplainable spike in exactly the same season as last year, you are not alone. NEPRA's recent decisions have introduced tiered "Fixed Charges" to residential bills, independent of your actual power consumption.
These are mandatory monthly capacity charges factored into your Mepco bill total based on your historical electricity usage tier. They cannot be avoided simply by turning off appliances.
These charges are separate from your per-unit consumption cost determined by official tariff rates. This is essentially a baseline rent to secure your connection to the grid's capacity.
The only effective way to prevent these fixed charges from inflating your future Mepco bill is strict load management. If you consistently stay below 300 units by optimizing your AC / appliance usage, no fixed charges are applied. For users with large homes, relying on solar power to suppress grid-drawn units below the 300 tier is highly recommended before gross metering laws take effect.
Currently, the overall cost to produce and maintain electricity infrastructure consists of 72% fixed capacity costs and 28% variable generation costs. Previously, tariffs relied too heavily on variable consumption to recover these fixed layout costs. NEPRA introduced these strict fixed charges to guarantee predictable revenue to sustain the grid, regardless of seasonal drops in consumer power usage.