Electricity Bill

[Michael W]

My electricity bill for this month was about 25 percent higher than last month though I don't think I used that much more electricity. In trying to figure out the bill (which is in Thai and is kept by the building manager who speaks very minimal English) it looks like I'm only being charged a flat rate and a 7 % tax -- there didn't appear much about the rate calculations (at least at the moment I was in the building office I wasn't able to calculate back from the total to get one of the other numbers shown).

What I'd like to know is do they simply charge a higher flat rate for your entire usage if you go over a certain amount or do they use a more conventional stepped calculation, i.e. a certain rate for the first X kilowatt-hours, then another (higher) rate for the next Y of usage, and so on? Also, do the rates change according to the season? I might have also heard something on the news about electricity rates going up in general but certainly no numbers which is what I'm trying to get now. I tried looking for all this on the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand Web site ( http://www.egat.co.th/english/ ) but didn't really see anything.

[lopburi3]

There is a stepped charge but only very little use gets the lowest rate. It has been posted so you might find with a search. But if you are renting you pay whatever they say you pay. The charge has not increased this month. I am a very heavy user with about 2,000 units per month and the cost per unit averages out as 3.69 baht. There is a basic cost (steps) - fuel adjustment and VAT.

[marquess]

I'm billed directly, and had a query with my bill and have yet to have decent answer to my enquiry. For ten days we didn't use the air conditioning and this was the case for two months, and yet the bill hardly seemed to have gone down. I too should like to know how they calculate things! Even went to so far as to fill out a form of enquiry and pay 100baht to have it done, as well as getting a man to come and check the metre. Still no joy!

[barryofthailand]

Don't waste your time trying to figure it out. We have a tweo bedroom house and average 1500 baht per monthg. More durring the hot months and a little less in dec and Jan.

Barry

[billd766]

We have 3 houses on the site and the average is around 2.70 baht per unit plus the fuel adjustment charge of 0.5683 baht per unit and my chrges run from just over 1911 baht in December to 2359 baht in January.

We do have a/c but it was only on for a couple of hours last year to see if it worked. It did.

[steveromagnino]

We have 3 houses on the site and the average is around 2.70 baht per unit plus the fuel adjustment charge of 0.5683 baht per unit and my chrges run from just over 1911 baht in December to 2359 baht in January.

We do have a/c but it was only on for a couple of hours last year to see if it worked. It did.

OK, first up, electricity and gas in many places around der world is not read every month. as a former pricing manager of a country's gas sytem, I got to hear this complaint about 500 times every month; 'my bill is the same but I was on holiday, etc etc'.... because it is an estimate often one out of every 2 months (and sometimes 2 out of 3, and in one area we used 5 out of every 6 months) there is some smoothing that occurs, and the ocassional screw up where someone ends up with a crazy bill as they meter read is a catch up of all the extra energy they have been using.

So it could be that to a degree.

Individual condos often buy their energy off the body corporate at an increased rate. Some buildings won't let you get your own meter. To put in perspective, my building (who wants everyone to have their own meter) charge 5b per KWh (I think that is the unit here), but using my own meter is 2.35b per kWh....big difference. Plus there is a fuel adjustment charge, which is like a surcharge at the moment for something or other - supposedly the cost of fuel beyond EGAT's control e.g. oil prices.

There is also the issue of fixed charge. Depending on your tariff you may or may not have this.

And yep, you pay VAT.

I do not know of this stepped rate you speak of; generally around the world domestic follows one of a few models:

- flat rate

- flat rate + fixed charge

- flat rate with discounted rate during certain time periods + fixed charge

- variable fixed charge based on meter size + various rates depending on time of use and amount of use, which may be laid out in step fashion

Mostly here in Thailand AFAIK the rates are mostly flat rate, and residential prices are subsidised by business rates (as is usually the case pre deregulation). Therefore, for smaller residential consumers, prices could increase about 80% to get to a non-cross subsidised situation AFAIK. Something to think about re. EGAT sell offs. There aren't too many places where you pay more as you use more unless it is a time of use tariff, where using energy in the times that the network is most overloaded is more expensive; in the tariff we used to use, I think we would pay our suppliers 60X more than the normal price if we used energy without authorisation on the highest days of the year, and a mere 30X more the normal price per unit, if we had authorisation in advance to use the energy beyond the tariff of our wholesale supplier.

To be honest, I only pay about 700b a month for a 2 bedroom, so I cannot be bothered investigating that much more here. Certainly though hot water uses a bit, and air con uses a lot; you can save a lot by replacing old air con systems with new decent ones, so if you are renting a place with old aircon, it may work out cheaper for you if staying there more than a year and a half and if you are liking the 18 degrees C or whatever some people feel they need to be able to wear ski jackets inside, then replace the old systems with new ones and share the cost with the landlord. Or even buy yourself.

Lights use almost nothing, and kitchen is minor. Air con is the big one, and washing machines and dryers can be pretty hungry as well.

If you want to cut your bill, turn your air con to abuot 25 degrees, turn it off when not in the room, seal draughts and stuff plus use a fan instead when it isn't so hot. Get some curtains too to block out the sun.