Two lines on Pakistani electricity bills confuse people more than any others: MDI and fixed charges. Put simply, MDI (Maximum Demand Indicator) is the highest load your connection pulled at any moment in the month, measured in kilowatts, and fixed charges are what you pay for the grid keeping that capacity ready for you, regardless of how many units you used. Here is what each one means and how they are worked out.
Units vs load: the key idea
Your bill measures two different things. Units (kWh) are the total energy you consumed over the month, that is what the slab system charges for. Load (kW) is how much power you were drawing at a single moment. Run one AC for ten hours and you use many units at a modest load; switch on two ACs, a water pump and an iron together and your load spikes even if only for a few minutes. MDI captures that spike.
What exactly is MDI?
The Maximum Demand Indicator is recorded by the meter as the highest average demand over short intervals during the billing period. On bills for commercial and industrial connections you will see it printed as a kW figure. It matters because the network, the transformer in your street, the feeder, the grid behind it, has to be sized for everyone's peak moments, not their averages. Consumers whose peaks are higher put more strain on that infrastructure, so part of their bill is tied to it.
What are fixed charges?
Fixed charges recover the costs that do not change with your usage: wires, transformers, metering, and the generation capacity kept on standby for you. They are billed in rupees per kilowatt per month, applied to your sanctioned load (the capacity your connection was approved for) or your recorded MDI, whichever is higher. That is why a workshop that barely ran its machines can still receive a noticeable bill: the capacity was reserved even if it went unused.
Fixed charges on domestic bills
Fixed charges used to be mainly a commercial and industrial matter, but NEPRA has extended them to domestic consumers as well, and revised them upward in its February 2026 determination. As reported, domestic rates now range from roughly Rs 200 to Rs 675 per kW per month depending on your consumption slab and whether you are a protected consumer, with higher-usage households paying more. Most home meters cannot record MDI, so the charge is based on a share of the connection's sanctioned load instead. For the exact current schedule, check the official NEPRA website, the figures are revised from time to time.
Can you do anything about them?
- Spread out heavy loads. Avoid running every big appliance at once, staggering the water pump, iron and ACs keeps your peak demand down.
- Watch your slab. Fixed charges step up with consumption slabs, so the advice in our guide to unit slabs, FPA and taxes helps here too: staying in a lower slab can mean both a lower unit rate and a lower fixed charge.
- Right-size a sanctioned load. For commercial connections, if your sanctioned load is far above what you ever use, ask your DISCO about revising it, you may be paying for capacity you never touch.
See these lines on your own bill
The easiest way to make sense of MDI and fixed charges is to look at your actual bill with this guide open. Check your electricity bill online with your 14-digit reference number, free, instant and with no sign-up, and see exactly what your connection is being charged for.