EV owners may have to pay more to charge their electric cars at home as the new ICPT scheme for the second half of 2023 has been announced. Bills with more than 1,500 kWh a month of usage will receive a surcharge of RM0.10 per kWh, a total net movement of RM0.12 compared to the RM0.02 rebate received previously.

This means the highest residential tariff of RM0.571 per kWh which we typically use to calculate residential EV charging costs is now effectively RM0.671 per kWh.

We typically use the RM0.571 rate because EVs are generally expensive items that are used in households that have residential electricity usage above the 901 kWh range monthly, in which the highest residential tariff applies.

However, do remember this RM0.10 per kWh surcharge doesn’t just apply to usage above 1,500 kWh. Once you use more than 1,500 kWh, the surcharge applies to your entire TNB bill.

Thus if your usage is currently just below the limit, adding an EV to your household might increase your electricity bill significantly, much more than just the electricity your EV consumes. The cost of electricity for everything else will go up as well.

For everyone else with usage below 1,500 kWh a month, the RM0.02 ICPT rebate that was previously available is still in effect.

According to the government, the average fuel cost for the 1H 2023 period was USD173.50 per metric tonne, reduced from USD224 per metric tonne in 2H 2022 which was used to calculate the previous ICPT rate.

In addition, the government also announced it would be revising the solar PV Net Energy Metering (NEM) scheme for residential houses to be less restrictive compared to the current 10 kW limit for 3-phase supply and 4 kW for single phase supply, but no further details on that yet.

What is ICPT?

ICPT is basically a mechanism to review the electricity tariff every six months to take into account fluctuating fuel pricing, which contributes to 65% of the cost component of the electricity tariff. It is revised every six months based on the six months period before it, thus this new ICPT surcharge for the second half of 2023 was based on fuel prices in the first half of 2023.