What changed on 1 July 2025
The old tiered block-rate system — where the first 200 units were cheaper than the next 100, and so on — was scrapped entirely. In its place: a single flat energy charge of 27.03 sen/kWh for households using up to 1,500 kWh a month, rising to 37.03 sen/kWh above that. Five charges now appear separately where one opaque number used to sit. These rates are locked in under Regulatory Period 4 (RP4), which runs from July 2025 through December 2027 — this is the framework Malaysian homes are paying under right now.
| Component | Rate (2026) | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Energy Charge | 27.03 sen/kWh (≤1,500 kWh) 37.03 sen/kWh (>1,500 kWh) | The electricity you actually consume |
| Automatic Fuel Adjustment (AFA) | Variable, recalculated monthly | Tracks global fuel prices. Surcharge or rebate. Exempt if you use ≤600 kWh |
| Capacity Charge | 4.55 sen/kWh | Fixed infrastructure cost on every grid unit |
| Network Charge | 12.85 sen/kWh | Grid transmission and distribution |
| Retail Charge | Fixed monthly fee | Billing and administration |
The 17.40 sen/kWh overhead efficiency can't cut
Add the Capacity Charge (4.55 sen/kWh) to the Network Charge (12.85 sen/kWh) and you get a fixed 17.40 sen/kWh applied to every unit you pull from the grid. It has nothing to do with fuel prices or how careful you are. Switching off lights, shorter showers, LED bulbs — all of that trims the energy charge only. None of it touches the 17.40 sen. The only way to avoid it is to not draw the unit from the grid in the first place: generate it yourself and consume it on-site.
This is the quiet headline of the restructure. Under the old tiered system a household in the lower blocks avoided roughly 21.80 sen/kWh of bill value per self-consumed solar unit. Under the new flat structure it avoids 44.43 sen/kWh (27.03 energy + 4.55 capacity + 12.85 network) before AFA — and past 45 sen in a surcharge month. The tariff didn't just raise bills; it roughly doubled what a unit of self-consumed solar is worth.
One nuance: the export side is not as generous. Surplus you push to the grid under Solar ATAP is compensated at the System Marginal Price — the energy component only, not capacity, network or retail. The full 5-component value is captured only on units you consume yourself, in daylight, as your panels produce them. That is why a system sized for daytime self-consumption returns materially more than one built to dump excess onto the grid.
AFA: the charge that moves every month
The Automatic Fuel Adjustment replaced the old biannual ICPT. It recalculates every calendar month against global coal and gas prices and the ringgit. The 2026 figures show how fast it moves:
| Month (2026) | AFA | Effect on a 1,000 kWh bill |
|---|---|---|
| January | −4.99 sen/kWh (rebate) | ~RM50 off |
| April | Rebate shrinking | Smaller credit |
| May | +1.38 sen/kWh (surcharge) | ~RM13.80 added |
The direction flipped from rebate to surcharge in five months. Households using 600 kWh or less are exempt; above that line, every unit carries this fuel-price risk. Self-consumed solar is the one structural hedge against it — a unit you generate yourself is immune to whichever way AFA swings.
Who pays more, who pays less
The restructure sorts households into three bands. Where you land decides whether your bill rose or fell.
| Usage band | AFA | Net effect |
|---|---|---|
| Protected — ≤600 kWh/mo | Fully exempt | Often a small reduction; qualifies for Energy Efficiency Incentive up to 25 sen/kWh. TNB's "23 million unaffected" group. |
| Mixed — 601–1,000 kWh/mo | Exposed above 600 kWh | Keeps efficiency incentive to 1,000 kWh; may still come out slightly ahead if AFA stays favourable. |
| Most exposed — >1,000 kWh/mo | Full exposure | No efficiency incentive; 37.03 sen/kWh above 1,500 kWh. Feels the rise hardest — and pays solar back fastest. |
The solar payback maths by bill size
Because every self-consumed unit is now worth 44+ sen, payback shortened under the new tariff. The table below sizes a system from your monthly TNB bill and nets off the RM3,000 SuRIA Home cash rebate (RM600 per kWac, capped at RM3,000, paid directly to your bank account). Figures are 2026 market ranges for a fully installed system by a SEDA-registered installer.
| Monthly TNB bill | System size | Installed cost | After RM3k rebate | Typical payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RM150–250 | 3 kWp | RM9,000–12,000 | RM6,000–9,000 | 5–7 yrs |
| RM250–400 | 4–5 kWp | RM15,000–20,000 | RM12,000–17,000 | 4–6 yrs |
| RM400–600 | 6–8 kWp | RM18,000–24,000 | RM15,000–21,000 | 4–5 yrs |
| RM600–900 | 8–10 kWp | RM24,000–32,000 | RM21,000–29,000 | 4–5 yrs |
| RM900+ | 10–12 kWp | RM30,000–40,000 | RM27,000–37,000 | 4–6 yrs |
Worked example, the household this tariff squeezes hardest: a larger terrace using ~1,100 kWh/month pays well north of RM400/month. A 5 kW system (~RM25,000 installed, ~RM21,000–22,000 after rebate) generates ~600–675 kWh/month at Peninsular Malaysia's ~4.5 peak sun hours, saving roughly RM300–400 a month. That is a payback of about 5–7 years and roughly RM90,000–105,000 saved across a 25-year panel life — an annual return of 12–18% with a built-in hedge against every future AFA swing and the next regulatory period after 2027.
Want the number for your own roof? Our free solar savings calculator turns your TNB bill into an instant system size, cost and payback estimate — no email required.
The programmes that make it work in 2026
Solar ATAP replaced NEM on 1 January 2026. NEM closed in June 2025 after its 2,500 MW quota filled; Solar ATAP has no fixed quota and accepts applications on a rolling basis through a SEDA-registered installer. SuRIA Home, launched by PETRA on 22 May 2026, pays RM600 per kWac (capped at RM3,000) as cash to your bank account once your system is commissioned — against a national quota of 250 MW (~50,000 households), first-come-first-served, to 31 December 2026. For context on scale: rooftop solar reached 1.72 GW by mid-2025, about 40% of Malaysia's 5.77 GW total installed capacity.
Use this data — free to cite
Journalists, bloggers and analysts are welcome to use these figures with attribution to SolarCompare.my and a link to this page. Suggested credit line and link:
https://solarcompare.my/data/tnb-tariff-2026
Methodology & sources
Tariff component rates, the AFA mechanism and the three usage bands are the official RP4 residential structure effective 1 July 2025, verifiable on TNB's tariff portal. The 17.40 sen/kWh overhead is the arithmetic sum of the published Capacity (4.55) and Network (12.85) charges. The 44.43 sen/kWh self-consumption value sums the energy, capacity and network components at the ≤1,500 kWh rate, before AFA. Solar generation assumes ~4.5 peak sun hours for Peninsular Malaysia. System costs are 2026 market ranges for fully installed systems by SEDA-registered installers (RM3,000–4,000 per kWp). Payback and lifetime-savings figures are estimates and vary with roof orientation, shading, system size and usage pattern; they are not a guarantee of returns.
- TNB residential tariff — mytnb.com.my/tariff
- Solar ATAP programme — seda.gov.my/reportal/atap
- SuRIA Home rebate — suriahome.com.my