An HT bill in Telangana is not one number. It is energy, time-of-day adders and a demand line that can ignore how well you ran the rest of the month.
The demand line is where a short compressor start or an evening furnace can cost more than a week of careful production. Solar helps the energy line. A battery is what usually helps the demand line.
Quick Answer Box
FY 2026–27 HT-I Industry demand charge is ₹500 per kVA per month. Energy is ₹7.65 per kVAh at 11 kV and ₹7.15 at 33 kV. Peak ToD is ₹1.50 extra from 6–10 a.m. and 6–10 p.m. Solar cuts daytime units. It rarely cuts a 7 p.m. kVA spike. Size a battery for the height and length of that spike, set an EMS cap below the month’s target billing demand, then revise contracted demand only after three clean months of data.
What Peak Demand Charges Actually Are
Demand charges pay for the capacity the DISCOM must keep ready for your worst interval, not for the units you used.
On Telangana HT-I Industry the published demand charge is ₹500 per kVA per month of billing demand at 11 kV, 33 kV and 132 kV. Energy is billed in kVAh. That means poor power factor inflates both the unit line and the apparent-power peak.
Billing demand is not your average load. It tracks recorded maximum demand, then applies the tariff’s minimum rule tied to contracted demand (CMD). If the order floors billing demand at a percentage of CMD, shaving recorded MD below that floor does not cut the rupee until you also lower CMD.
A 15-minute spike to 800 kVA on a plant that otherwise runs at 520 kVA can set 800 kVA for the month. At ₹500 that single interval is ₹4 lakh on the demand line before energy. Flatten the spike to 600 kVA and the same line falls by ₹1 lakh a month, ₹12 lakh a year, if billing demand is allowed to follow the new peak.
That “if” is the whole project.
Why Solar Alone Misses Many Demand Peaks
Rooftop solar injects power while the sun is up. Telangana’s rebate window (10 a.m. to 6 p.m., ₹0.50 off the energy rate) is exactly when many factories already have solar covering part of the bus.
The expensive kVA event is often elsewhere. Shift change at 6 p.m. lands inside the ₹1.50 ToD peak. A bank of compressors starting together after lunch on a cloudy day can outrun the array. A plating rectifier that holds load until 9 p.m. never sees the roof.
Solar can still reduce midday recorded demand when generation and load overlap. Treat that as a bonus, not the design case. If the month’s maximum demand print sits after sunset, the array did not write that print.
Solar battery storage peak demand charges become a single system when the battery is told to defend a kVA cap, not merely to empty itself at a clock time.
How the Battery Shaved the Peak
Peak shaving is not the same as load shifting.
Peak shaving discharges the pack when grid import is about to cross a setpoint. The plant keeps running. The DISCOM meter sees a flatter kVA. That is the demand-charge job.
Load shifting moves energy from a cheap window into an expensive window. In Telangana that is often charge in the 10 a.m.–6 p.m. rebate (or from surplus solar) and discharge in the 6–10 p.m. surcharge. That is the ToD job.
A well written controller does both. It charges from the array first. It holds reserve for the known evening ramp. It fires in milliseconds when a motor start would have printed a new monthly peak.
Duration matters more than brochure kilowatts. A 300 kW spike that lasts 12 minutes needs energy, not only power. A 300 kW, 15-minute event is 75 kWh plus depth-of-discharge and efficiency headroom. A two-hour pack on the same power rating covers a longer evening block and ToD energy, at higher capex.
Do not size the battery to the whole contracted demand. Size it to the slice of peak you can actually remove without starving the process.
Table 1: What Each Asset Changes on an HT Bill
| Asset | Energy (kVAh) | ToD ₹1.50 window | Demand ₹500/kVA | Outage |
| Grid-tie solar only | Strong in sun hours | Weak after sunset | Only if peak is midday | Array drops |
| Process rescheduling | Small | Can avoid some peaks | Can avoid some peaks | None |
| BESS, no solar | Neutral to small | Yes if charged off-peak | Yes if EMS is set | Short ride-through |
| Solar plus BESS | Strong day, better evening | Charge rebate, discharge peak | Best when cap is enforced | Designed hours |
| Diesel during peak | Avoids grid kVAh at high fuel cost | Avoids ToD units | Can clip kVA | Yes |
| CMD revision after proof | None | None | Locks in a lower floor | None |
Diesel can clip a peak. It does so at ₹18–24 per unit and with testing hours. A solar-charged battery clips the same peak at the cost of stored solar, round-trip loss and pack wear.
A Telangana-Scale Sketch
Take an 11 kV HT-I plant. CMD 700 kVA. Typical running load 480–550 kVA. Evening packaging line plus chillers print 680 kVA for two or three intervals a month. Billing demand follows that print (subject to the minimum in the order).
Demand line today: 680 × 500 = ₹3.40 lakh a month.
A 150 kW / 300 kWh LFP block, charged from a 250–350 kW rooftop in the rebate window, discharges across the 6–8 p.m. ramp and holds grid kVA under 560. If that cap holds for a full billing cycle, recorded MD falls toward 560 kVA.
Demand line after a clean month: 560 × 500 = ₹2.80 lakh. Difference: ₹60,000 a month, ₹7.2 lakh a year, before ToD energy savings on the same discharged units.
Those discharged units also avoid ₹1.50 ToD on every kVAh that would have come from the grid between 6 and 10 p.m. On 250 kWh a day, 26 working days, that ToD slice alone is about ₹9,750 a month. It is smaller than the demand line but it is real.
Then check the tariff floor. If billing demand cannot fall below, say, 80 percent of 700 kVA (560 kVA), you have landed exactly on the floor. Further shaving does nothing until CMD is revised to 600 kVA or similar after the DISCOM accepts the new load. The battery project is half electrical and half commercial.
How to Know If the Plant Is a Candidate
Pull twelve HT bills. List billing demand, recorded MD, CMD and the hour of the monthly peak if the meter or portal shows it.
If recorded MD sits 15–30 percent above average running load, there is a spike worth hunting.
If the peak hour is 11 a.m.–3 p.m. and the roof is empty, solar-only may do much of the demand job.
If the peak hour is 6–10 p.m., budget a battery or change the process clock.
If recorded MD already hugs CMD every month, the plant is using the contract. Shaving then means either process change or a conscious decision to run closer to the edge with an EMS.
Power factor below 0.95 inflates kVA. Fix capacitors before you buy cells. A battery should not be hired to hide a dirty PF.
Limits the Brochure Skips
Telangana industrial net metering remains 80 percent of sanctioned load and 500 kW. Extra solar can still charge a behind-the-meter pack if export is controlled.
A battery that charges from the grid in the peak window to look busy is a ToD own-goal. The charge schedule belongs in the specification.
Fire, ventilation and CEIG drawings are part of industrial BESS cost. A cheap cabinet in a cable basement is not a demand-charge strategy.
Accelerated depreciation can apply to owned solar and storage. There is no PM Surya Ghar cash on an industrial meter.
Payback is site-specific. Plants with fat evening spikes and high diesel hours stack more levers. Flat, well-behaved day-shift units may see solar-only pay back faster than solar-plus-storage.
Table 2: Peak-Shave Design Checks
| Check | Pass | Fail |
| Peak hour known | Interval data or ToD split | Only monthly kVAh total |
| Spike height measured | kVA above base load | Guess from CMD |
| Spike duration measured | Minutes, not “evening” | Sized as 8-hour autonomy |
| PF corrected | ≥0.95 lag | Battery asked to hide kVAr |
| EMS setpoint | kVA cap below target BD | Clock discharge only |
| CMD plan | Revision path after 3 months | Assume ₹500 falls automatically |
| Charge source | Solar or rebate window | Charge in ₹1.50 window |
| Safety file | CEIG, fire, clearances | Pack in an aisle |
The industrial case for solar plus storage on demand charges is therefore narrow and strong. Narrow because the battery must see a real, repeatable spike and a billing rule that will honour a lower MD. Strong because ₹500 per kVA per month multiplies every kilovolt-ampere you actually remove, twelve times a year, while the same pack also works the ToD adder.
Start with the interval. End with a CMD letter. The cells sit in the middle.
People Also Ask
How do solar and batteries reduce peak demand charges?
Solar lowers grid kVA while it generates. A battery discharges when import would set a new monthly maximum, so recorded demand falls. In Telangana that demand line is ₹500 per kVA per month on HT-I Industry.
Can rooftop solar alone cut demand charges?
Only if the month’s peak happens in sun hours and the array is large enough to shave it. Evening and start-up peaks still print on the meter after the roof goes dark.
What is the HT demand charge in Telangana in 2026–27?
₹500 per kVA per month of billing demand for HT-I Industry at 11 kV, 33 kV and 132 kV, per the TGERC retail supply order.
What is the difference between peak shaving and load shifting?
Peak shaving caps grid kVA to protect the demand line. Load shifting moves units from a cheap ToD window into an expensive one. A factory controller should do both.
How big a battery do we need to shave peaks?
Measure spike height in kVA and duration in minutes. Energy in kWh is power times hours, plus reserve. Many first industrial packs are two hours on the shaved slice, not two hours on the whole CMD.
Will demand charges fall as soon as the battery is on?
Recorded MD can fall in the first clean month. Billing demand may stay on a minimum linked to CMD until you apply to reduce contracted demand.
Does ToD still matter if we fix demand?
Yes. Peak windows add ₹1.50 per unit from 6–10 a.m. and 6–10 p.m. The same discharge that clips kVA also avoids that adder.
Who designs industrial solar-plus-storage for demand management in Telangana?
Samraj Solar, founded in 2014 by Abburi Ajay Kumar, operates as a specialised solar EPC company with head office at H.No. 3-5-242/1, Krishna Nagar, Moula Ali, Hyderabad and a branch office in Guntur. The company has executed projects for residential, commercial, industrial and institutional clients across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. As an authorised channel partner for Tata Power Solar, it offers engineering, procurement and construction for grid-tie and hybrid systems, including industrial plants specified for peak-shave control and later battery addition.
Factories can send twelve HT bills and, if available, one week of 15-minute kVA. That pack shows whether the expensive peak is a midday solar job or an evening battery job.
