For four months in a row now, the fuel surcharge line on UP electricity bills has been a credit, not a charge. Consumers are the clear beneficiaries. But every rupee of that credit is also a rupee less in the utility's billing, and it shows up in a number the department watches closely: the average billing rate, or ABR, the rate actually recovered per unit sold. The comparison below covers the fuel surcharge rates notified for each billing month, last financial year against this one. And for one distribution circle, EDC Loni, the department's own ABR analysis, submitted to the Chief Engineer (Distribution) on 23 October 2026, puts exact numbers on the effect.
The comparison sheet: FY 2025-26 vs FY 2026-27
| Billing month | FPPAS FY 2025-26 | FPPAS FY 2026-27 | Gap (pp) |
| April | +1.24% | +1.24% | 0.00 |
| May | −2.00% | −1.52% | +0.48 |
| June | +4.27% | +10.00% (cap) | +5.73 |
| July | +1.97% | −4.43% | −6.40 |
| August | +0.24% | −2.92% | −3.16 |
| September | +2.34% | −7.93% | −10.27 |
| October | −1.63% | −5.24% | −3.61 |
| November | +1.83% | −9.17% | −11.00 |
| Total (Apr–Nov) | +8.26% | −19.97% | −28.23 |
Up to October, the two years had drifted apart by a cumulative 17.23 percentage points, an average of 2.46 points a month (this year's April–October average is −1.54% against +0.92% last year). November has now widened that gap sharply: the notified rate of −9.17% against last November's +1.83% adds 11.00 percentage points in one month, taking the April–November total to 28.23 percentage points — an average of 3.53 points a month across the eight billing months.
What consumers got, and why
The mechanism comes from the UPERC (Multi Year Tariff for Distribution) Regulations, 2025. Power purchase costs are compared with the approved cost every month, and the variation passes through to bills automatically, three months behind, capped at 10% in a month. When costs fall below the estimate, as they did through the 2026 monsoon on the strength of cheap hydel generation, consumers get the benefit in that very billing cycle. Four consecutive months of credits, worth lakhs of rupees every day, is the system working exactly as the regulator designed it. The same rule worked in consumers' disfavour in June 2026, when the monthly surcharge hit the full 10% cap.
The department's side of the ledger
EDC Loni's assessment for April to September 2026 was ₹52,502.6 lakh (fixed + energy + duty). The difference between the two years' FPPAS rates over those six months was 13.62 percentage points. Applied to the assessment, it comes to ₹1,336.6 lakh, about ₹13.37 crore less billed in six months. Spread over the 612.48 million units actually sold, that is 21.82 paise per unit of the total 29.87 paise fall in EDC Loni's Non-Government ABR (735.50 to 705.63 paise, April to September, year on year).
Two clarifications matter here. First, June proves the linkage: when FPPAS hit +10%, the month's ABR actually rose above last year (763.2 vs 742.0 paise). Second, this is not a collection failure. EDC Loni's AT&C loss improved to 19.10% in the same period and collection grew by ₹21.70 crore. The ABR fell for two reasons outside the department's control: the negative fuel surcharge, and a larger share of consumption moving to the lower-tariff domestic category (LMV-1), which accounts for the remaining roughly 6 paise of the decline.
September as the worked example
September 2026 carried the widest gap of the year: −7.93% against +2.34% last September, a difference of 10.27 percentage points. On EDC Loni's assessment of ₹9,388.1 lakh for that month, it meant ₹964.2 lakh less billed in one month, which is 9.04 paise on every unit sold in September. October's gap was narrower (−5.24% vs −1.63%, a 3.61 point difference), but it extended the credit streak.
Why November will feel it the most
November 2025 carried a positive FPPAS of +1.83%. November 2026's rate has now been notified at −9.17%, based on August 2026 power purchase costs. That is a year-on-year gap of 11.00 percentage points in a single month, the widest of the financial year, wider even than September's 10.27 points. On an assessment the size of September's (₹9,388.1 lakh), November's billing carries roughly ₹1,033 lakh less than it would have at last year's rate, about ₹10.33 crore in one month, or close to 97 paise on every unit sold at September's volume. It is also the month that pushes the cumulative April–November gap to its full 28.23 percentage points, with the per-unit effect on EDC Loni's ABR growing past the 21.82 paise already recorded.
Both sides of the same coin
Consumers should read these numbers as their savings; the department reads them as revenue foregone, and it tracks the per-unit effect on ABR because that is the rate recovered per unit sold. Neither reading is wrong. The regulation simply moves the fuel cost risk in both directions, month by month, and this year the direction has been firmly in the consumer's favour.
Sources: Bijlibabu FPPAS rate list and UPPCL monthly FPPAS orders (RAU letters); EDC Loni ABR (Non-Govt) analysis letter, Office of the Executive Engineer, Electricity Distribution Division Loni, dt. 23.10.2026; UPERC MYT for Distribution Regulations, 2025.
