Rajasthan Industrial
Electricity Tariff, Decoded.

The Rajasthan industrial electricity tariff is a state-level structure set by the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC) and applied uniformly across the state's three DISCOMs — JVVNL, AVVNL, and JdVVNL. This article sets out the current structure, verified against RERC's tariff order effective 1 October 2025.

Three Common Cost Profiles

How Rajasthan C&I Consumers Actually Source Power

Three buyer profiles come up repeatedly among Rajasthan C&I consumers modelling their power costs. Each faces a distinct cost or constraint, addressed with figures in Part 2 of this series.

The remainder of this article works through two numeric examples, scaled to reflect the size of facility most PWRNXT clients actually operate — a 4,000 kVA medium industrial (MP/HT-3) consumer and a 1,000 kVA commercial (NDS/HT-2) consumer. These are illustrative figures, separate from the three profiles above, which describe common sourcing structures rather than specific tariff categories.

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RERC HT Tariff Categories Explained

Fixed Charge, Energy Charge, and Where Your Facility Sits

Under RERC's approved tariff schedule, most Rajasthan C&I connections above roughly 25 HP or 125 kVA sit on one of four High Tension (HT) tariff schedules. Each carries its own Fixed Charge (billed per kVA of billing demand — the higher of actual maximum demand or 75% of contract demand) and Energy Charge (billed per unit consumed).

ℹ Source: Rajasthan's state-level tariff order, effective 1 October 2025 (RERC Petition Nos. 2303–2305/2025), as published in JdVVNL's implementation circular.

Selecting the correct category matters. Mixing up MP/HT-3 and LP/HT-5 for a mid-sized factory that has grown past the 125 kVA threshold, or applying NDS/HT-2 commercial rates to a mixed-use facility that should sit on ML/HT-4, are frequent errors. The category determines the fixed charge, the energy charge, and every calculation that follows.

Illustrative Example: A 4,000 kVA Medium Industrial (MP/HT-3) Consumer

Illustrative figures only — a hypothetical consumption profile used to walk through the mechanics, not a real PWRNXT client.

Illustrative Example: A 1,000 kVA Commercial (NDS/HT-2) Consumer

Illustrative figures only.

Both examples continue through the following sections, with each section adding the next layer of cost.

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Time of Day (ToD) Tariff for Rajasthan

A 22% Swing That Has Nothing to Do With Negotiation

Under RERC tariff orders dating to 2019-20, Rajasthan became an early adopter of Time of Day tariffs — well ahead of the central government's 2023 rules pushing ToD adoption nationwide for consumers with connected load above 10 kW. Under Rajasthan's state-level tariff order, ToD applies uniformly across every HT and qualifying LT commercial/industrial category as a percentage adjustment applied to the Energy Charge. The Fixed Charge is unaffected, and the adjustment is automatic rather than elective.

ℹ Source: Rajasthan's state-level tariff order, effective 1 October 2025.

The net effect of ToD on any given consumer depends entirely on their load curve. A single-shift daytime operation captures the off-peak rebate almost by accident. A facility running an evening shift — or a commercial property with evening footfall, like a hotel or retail complex — carries a meaningfully higher effective rate, because its heaviest consumption lands squarely in the 10% surcharge window. The more consequential number, though, isn't the blended bill impact — it's the spread between a facility's cheapest and most expensive hour: for MP/HT-3, that's ₹5.85/unit off-peak against ₹7.15/unit at evening peak, a 22% difference that has nothing to do with efficiency or negotiation, only when power is drawn.

Continuing the Examples: Applying ToD

MP/HT-3, 4,000 kVA, illustrative monthly load split:

Against a flat ₹32,50,000 (no ToD), this evening-heavy load profile costs ₹52,000 more under ToD — a 1.6% increase on the energy charge alone. That's a modest blended figure precisely because the off-peak rebate is still doing real work; a facility that captured none of the off-peak window and ran entirely on evening-peak power would see closer to the full 10% surcharge applied across the board.

NDS/HT-2, 1,000 kVA, illustrative monthly load split:

Against a flat ₹12,75,000, ToD costs this commercial consumer ₹21,250 more — a 1.7% increase — again driven by evening-heavy demand, typical of hospitality and retail loads.

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Electricity Duty Rate and Surcharges

What Sits on Top of the Fixed and Energy Charge

Beyond the Fixed and Energy Charges, Rajasthan's C&I bills carry several statutory and regulatory add-ons.

Under the Rajasthan Electricity (Duty) Act, 1962, Electricity Duty is levied as a flat per-unit charge — not a percentage, despite what some third-party bill calculators suggest. The applicable rates:

ℹ Source: Rate of Electricity Duty notification under the Rajasthan Electricity (Duty) Act, 1962, as published by Rajasthan's Bureau of Investment Promotion (RajNivesh). If your DISCOM statement shows duty as a percentage rather than a flat per-unit figure, confirm the applicable line item directly with your DISCOM — flat, per-unit duty is the rate we've been able to verify against a primary government source.

FPPAS is genuinely variable month to month — but it isn't stacked on top of the Regulatory Surcharge as a second, unrelated cost. Under Clause 32 of the tariff order, the two are designed to net to a combined ceiling of approximately ₹1.00/unit for non-domestic consumers. The order gives its own worked examples: if FPPAS in a given month is ₹0.20/unit, the Regulatory Surcharge for that month is set at ₹0.80/unit; if FPPAS is ₹0.40/unit, the Regulatory Surcharge is ₹0.60/unit. Either way, the combined total holds at ₹1.00/unit. For modeling purposes, ₹1.00/unit combined is a reasonable illustrative planning figure — considerably more useful than treating FPPAS as an open-ended unknown.

ℹ Source: Rajasthan's state-level tariff order, effective 1 October 2025, Clause 32.

For open-access consumers specifically, Wheeling Charges apply — and, for third-party (merchant) open access only, Cross-Subsidy Surcharge and an Additional Surcharge apply on top of all of the above. Covered in full in the next section, since these vary by ownership structure, not just by sourcing method.

Continuing the Examples: The Fully Loaded Bill

MP/HT-3, 4,000 kVA:

NDS/HT-2, 1,000 kVA:

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Solar Banking Rules & Wheeling Charges

What Happens to Surplus Depends on How Solar Was Sourced

Banking rules in Rajasthan are not uniform. Under RERC's Green Energy Open Access Regulations, 2025 and Third Amendment to the Grid Interactive DRE Regulations, what happens to surplus solar generation depends on how that solar was sourced.

ℹ Source: RERC Green Energy Open Access Regulations, 2025; RERC Third Amendment to the Grid Interactive DRE Regulations, 2025.

Net Metering Settlement Order: Lowest Tariff Slot First

For Time-of-Day consumers under Group or Virtual Net Metering, RERC's Third Amendment specifies that surplus is settled starting from the lowest tariff slot first, working upward. In practice, that means solar surplus — generated mostly during off-peak and normal hours — nets against a consumer's cheapest consumption first, not their most expensive evening-peak consumption, even when the evening peak is where a facility draws the most power.

Continuing the Examples: Banking and the Opportunity Cost of Solar Surplus

MP/HT-3, captive rooftop solar — illustrative strong-generation month, separate from the load-profile month above:

Say this factory installs a 3,000 kW captive rooftop system. In a strong-generation month, it self-consumes 1,20,000 units directly and injects 1,20,000 units of surplus, against DISCOM (grid) consumption of 3,00,000 units that month.

The 7,200 units lost to the banking charge are a guaranteed, calculable cost of using the banking facility at all. The 30,000 units that exceed the ceiling are the more consequential number, and their value depends entirely on what happens to them next:

That final row is the throughline into Part 2: the same 30,000 units that fall outside the banking ceiling are worth up to three times more captured through storage than sold at the generic solar rate, simply because storage lets them offset the evening-peak block instead of the grid's own (much lower) power-purchase cost.

NDS/HT-2, rooftop solar under Group Net Metering — illustrative month:

Say this commercial complex installs an 800 kW rooftop system under GNM. It self-consumes 60,000 units directly and exports 40,000 units of surplus, generated during the day.

This ₹59,500 is not a fee or a charge — it is forfeited value, a function of when solar generates and how surplus is applied under standard net-metering settlement rules. It does not appear as a line item on any bill.

Open Access: Wheeling and Cross-Subsidy Charges

This is where most coverage collapses a real distinction into a single "open access" bucket. Wheeling Charge applies regardless of ownership structure. Cross-Subsidy Surcharge and Additional Surcharge apply only to third-party (merchant) open access — captive and group captive structures, which meet the ownership and self-consumption tests under the Electricity Rules, 2005, are exempt from both.

ℹ Source: reporting on RERC's approved FY2026 retail tariff order (Petition Nos. 2303–2305/2025); Additional Surcharge exemption for captive generation per GEOA Regulation 11.5.

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Putting It All Together

The Full Bill and Your Solar Capture Options

Pulling every line item together, here's what each charge actually contributes to the two worked examples' fully loaded totals:

Energy Charge dominates both bills, as expected — but the statutory and regulatory add-ons (Duty, FPPAS/Regulatory Surcharge, Special FSA) together account for roughly 14% of the industrial bill and 12% of the commercial bill, a meaningful share that a headline per-unit rate alone won't surface.

The Pecking Order for Solar Surplus

Every section above points toward the same underlying question: once solar is on site, what actually happens to a unit of surplus generation, and what is it worth? Ranked from most to least valuable:

Options 1, 2, and 4 are available today with solar alone. Option 5 is what happens by default when nobody plans for excess generation. Option 3 is the one this article can describe but can't resolve on its own — it requires storage, sized and dispatched correctly, and it's the subject of Part 2: how a correctly sized Battery Energy Storage System addresses the Time of Day surcharge exposure, the banking ceiling, and the wheeling charges set out above, and how Rajasthan's current wheeling waiver applies.

Read the storage-based analysis in Part 2: Battery Storage (BESS) for Rajasthan Solar — The C&I Blueprint.

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