Understanding Your Electricity Bill
A free 7-lesson course for facility staff and building owners in Peninsular Malaysia: what you pay for, how the meter works, every line of a TNB RP4 bill, maximum demand, Time-of-Use and power factor, with a worked office tower bill.
Start the courseReading the bill
- 1
Power vs Energy: What You Actually Pay For
Power (kW) is the rate right now; energy (kWh) is power times time. Understand the difference — and why nothing runs at nameplate — before you chase savings.
- 2
How Electricity Meters Work: Disc to Smart Meter
The meter is the cash register of the whole electricity industry. Here is how the spinning-disc meter, the modern electronic meter, and TNB's smart meters actually measure your kWh, kW and kVARh.
- 3
Your TNB Bill, Line by Line
Each line of a TNB bill is a meter reading multiplied by a price. Aina, a facility executive, follows the five RP4 charges (energy, capacity, network, retail and AFA), plus the power factor surcharge and KWTBB, through the September 2026 bills of an example office tower and shoplot.
The charges you can control
- 4
Maximum Demand: Why One Bad Half-Hour Costs So Much
Your maximum demand charge in Malaysia is set by your building's worst 30 minutes of the month, billed in ringgit per kW. Here's how to spot it and clip it.
- 5
Time-of-Use, Green Tariffs and Avoidable Penalties
How Malaysian facility managers cut the electricity rate itself: shift load off-peak, buy green power, and stop power-factor and demand penalties leaking cash.
- 6
Power Factor Correction: What Capacitor Banks Do
How a capacitor bank supplies a motor's reactive current locally, raises power factor toward 1, and removes TNB's surcharge, plus the silent failure that brings it back.