Higher electricity bills due to intense summer: Maharashtra Chief Minister

2 min readMumbaiUpdated: Jul 10, 2026 07:34 PM IST

Higher household electricity consumption during an intense summer pushed many consumers into higher tariff slabs, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis said. (File Photo)

A prolonged and intense summer led to a steep hike in domestic electricity bills across the state, Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the state legislative assembly on Friday.

Fadnavis added, “Domestic power consumers were crossing the 300 unit threshold.”

Fadnavis also said he had received complaints from Thane, Kalyan, Badlapur, Ambarnath and other places about increased electricity bills this summer.

As such, a study was carried out by the state electricity board (Mahavitaran), in which a comparison made for temperatures and use of electricity for the month of May in 2025 and 2026, saw that a family living in a one bedroom flat used 415 units this summer, as compared to 270 units previous year.

As a result, their electricity bill increased from Rs 2500 to Rs 4000. Similarly, two bedroom flats saw a jump in usage from 425 units to 655 units. Their monthly bill rose from Rs 4500 to Rs 8000.

This is due to Maharashtra Electricity Board’s fixed slab-wise rates for domestic users. Households consuming less than 100 units are covered under subsidised rates. Houses consuming 300 units also get some concessions. But when power consumption crosses 300 units, the rates double, explaining the steep increase in cost.

The study noted that last year the temperature in May averaged 38.3 degree celcius. Whereas, it was 43 degree celsius this May.

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Another significant difference from last May was that Thane received 200 millimetre rain which helped beat the intense heat and dropped the electricity consumption especially for fans and air conditioners (ACs). This May, there was no such respite. As a result the use of fridges and fans and ACs were increased.