ZESCO Electricity Tariffs Explained (2026): Why Your Units Shrink and How to Cut Your Bill

The short version

ZESCO does not sell electricity at one price. Residential customers pay on a four-band "block" tariff, where the cheapest units come first each month and every extra unit gets dearer. The Energy Regulation Board (ERB) approved the current bands on 31 October 2025, and they took effect on 1 November 2025:

Three things follow from that table, and most of this guide is about them:

1. Your 401st unit costs nearly ten times your first. K3.45 against K0.35.
2. The bands count per calendar month. Units bought late in a month are priced against everything you have already bought that month, which is why the same token buys fewer units.
3. These prices are not the final price at the till. ERB's tariff schedules state that the energy charges are exclusive of 3% excise duty and 16% VAT, which are added on top.

These rates are approved until 31 October 2026. ERB's decision says ZESCO must file a "True-Up Report" for review before any further adjustment, so a change from November 2026 is possible. More on that below.

How we got here: the emergency tariff years

For most of 2024 and 2025, Zambia was not on the normal tariff at all. On 12 April 2024 the ERB declared an emergency under section 18 of the Electricity Act No. 11 of 2019, because the Southern African drought had cut water levels in the big hydro reservoirs and ZESCO could not meet demand. By January 2025, the ERB recorded that ZESCO's power deficit was still over 1,000MW and that it was paying for imported power.

The emergency tariff that ran from 1 November 2024 split residential use into six bands, with the top band, above 500 units a month, at K6.39 per unit. It was extended several times and finally expired on 31 October 2025.

In its October 2025 decision the ERB:

• Ended the six-tier emergency structure and moved residential customers back to four bands.
• Kept the price of the first 200 units a month unchanged, to protect lifeline (low-income) customers.
• Rejected ZESCO's proposal to split households into "lifeline" and "standard" customers by geographical location, because that approach did not ensure fairness. ZESCO was told to study a better targeting method. For now, every residential customer gets the cheap first 200 units, whatever suburb they live in.
• Cut the top residential rate from K6.39 to K3.45, the "46% reduction" in the headlines.

That 46% applies to the top rate only. How much any particular household saved depends on where its monthly use falls, and a household using a modest amount will not have seen its bill halve.

Why the same money buys fewer units later in the month

This is the complaint ZESCO hears most: "I bought K500 of units last week and got far more than today." Nothing has gone missing. It is the block tariff working as designed.

On a prepaid meter, the bands are counted across everything you buy in the calendar month. Your first token each month starts in R1. Each later token that month starts where the last one stopped. On the first day of the next month, the count resets.

Here is the arithmetic, using energy charges before tax so the numbers stay clean:

First K500 of the month

• 100 units in R1 at K0.35 = K35
• 100 units in R2 at K1.00 = K100
• The remaining K365 buys about 151 units in R3 at K2.42

Total: about 351 units.

A second K500 later in the same month

• About 49 units finish off R3 at K2.42 = roughly K119
• The remaining K381 buys about 110 units in R4 at K3.45

Total: about 160 units.

Same money, less than half the electricity. And on the 1st of next month, K500 buys about 351 units again.

Postpaid customers see the same effect on their monthly bill rather than at the till: the bill runs your metered use through the same four bands.

What a month of electricity actually costs

Energy charges before tax, at the rates in force since 1 November 2025:

Now add tax. ERB's schedules say the energy charges exclude 3% excise duty and 16% VAT. If VAT is charged on the excise-inclusive amount, which is how VAT normally works, the two together add about 19.5%. On that basis, a 300-unit month costs roughly K450 at the till instead of K377, and a 600-unit month roughly K1,564. Your token slip or bill itemises the taxes; check it against these figures.

The jump from 400 to 600 units is the one to notice. Those 200 extra units cost K690 before tax, more than the whole first 400 units put together.

Where the units go: finding your band

You cannot manage what you cannot see. Two steps:

1. Find your monthly number. Add up the units on your token slips (or your postpaid bills) for each of the last three months. Most people have never done this, and it is the single most useful number in this guide.

2. Work out what pushes you over a band edge. The edges that matter are 200 units (where the price jumps from K1.00 to K2.42) and 400 units (where it jumps to K3.45). Energy use is simple to estimate:

units (kWh) = appliance watts, multiplied by hours used, divided by 1,000

Check the rating plate on each appliance for its wattage. As an illustration:

• A 2,000-watt geyser element running 2 hours a day uses 4 units a day, or about 120 units a month. On its own, that can push a household from R2 into R3.
• A 1,500-watt stove plate used 2 hours a day uses 3 units a day, about 90 units a month.

If those 120 geyser units sit in R4, they cost about K414 a month before tax. If you trim use so they fall in R3, they cost about K290. Cutting that one appliance's hours has a bigger effect than any number of lightbulbs.

Four mistakes that cost Zambian households money

1. Sharing one meter between households. This is common in compounds and subdivided plots, and it is expensive. Two households each using 200 units on their own meters pay K135 each, K270 in total. Put the same 400 units through one shared meter and the bill is K619, because the second household's units land in R3. That is K349 a month, before tax, for nothing. If you are a tenant on a shared meter, raise a separate meter with your landlord. It is also a fair point to negotiate when you sign a lease.

2. Bulk-buying "to beat a price rise". The ERB's January 2025 statement noted that many prepaid customers bought units in bulk just before the emergency tariffs began. Because bands are counted per month, a large one-off purchase can cost you more than it saves. A household that uses 250 units a month pays about K256 a month before tax. Buy three months' worth (750 units) in one go and the purchase costs about K1,827, against K768 for three normal months. Unless the price rise is enormous, spread your buying.

3. Big top-ups at the end of the month. If you have already used 400 units this month, a large token on the 28th is priced at K3.45 a unit. Buy only what you need to get to the 1st, then buy the rest when the count resets.

4. Not budgeting electricity as a fixed bill. Once you know your monthly number, treat it like rent. Set the money aside when your salary lands, and keep an emergency cushion in a separate account so a cold month doesn't come out of food money. Our savings calculator helps you size that buffer, and if you buy tokens by phone, read what mobile money actually costs before choosing how to pay.

What could change from November 2026

The current rates are approved until 31 October 2026. ZESCO's own tariff page lists "pre-approved 2026/2027" residential rates of K0.54, K1.28, K2.83 and K4.04 per unit for the four bands. But the ERB's October 2025 decision states that ZESCO must submit a True-Up Report for review before any subsequent tariff adjustment.

Treat those pre-approved figures as a signal of direction, not a confirmed price. For scale: applied to today's bands, they would take a 300-unit month from K377 to K465 before tax, about 23% more. If a new decision is published, the ERB will announce it. Check erb.org.zm rather than relying on social-media screenshots of "new tariffs", which have circulated with wrong figures before.

Solar, and what the tax rules give you

Solar is the most common way Zambian households have responded to load-shedding and rising top-band prices. Two sets of rules make it cheaper than it would otherwise be.

Customs duty. Under the Ministry of Energy and ZRA's Customs Handbook for Solar PV Products (June 2024):

• Solar panels have carried a zero customs duty rate since 1999.
• Duty on solar inverters and solar batteries was removed in 2012.
• Duty on lithium-ion batteries, LED lamps and solar charge controllers is suspended by later statutory instruments.

VAT. The VAT (Zero-Rating) Order, as set out in ZRA's VAT Liability Guide, zero-rates a list of energy-saving equipment. It includes:

• solar panels, solar water heaters and solar charge control units
• LED lamps
• static converters (inverters)
• batteries, but ZRA limits this to batteries for use with solar equipment
• generators, LPG, and gas cookers and stoves

Two practical consequences:

• If a supplier adds 16% VAT to a solar panel or inverter, ask why.
• The list covers goods. Installation labour is not on it.

Tax lists change with each budget, so confirm current treatment with the supplier or ZRA before a large purchase.

Does solar pay? Work it out from your own numbers, not a salesperson's. The saving is the units you stop buying from the top of your monthly count: the R4 and R3 units at K3.45 and K2.42, not the cheap K0.35 ones. A household at 600 units a month that shifts 200 units to solar avoids about K690 a month before tax. Divide the full installed quote by that monthly saving to get a rough payback period in months, and remember batteries wear out and need replacing. If you are borrowing to buy a system, compare the loan's total cost with your saving using our debt payoff planner and the personal loan comparison. A loan that costs more each month than the electricity it replaces is not a saving.

Net metering: selling surplus solar back to ZESCO

Since 1 August 2024, under the Electricity (Net Metering) Regulations (SI No. 38 of 2024), ZESCO customers with a renewable system can become "prosumers" and feed surplus power into the grid for credit against their bill. The key terms:

• Size limit. Generation is limited to your contracted or declared demand with ZESCO.
• Equipment. You need a grid-tied inverter.
• Meter cost. You pay for the meter. The ERB's 2026 connection fees are K8,712 for a single-phase prepaid prosumer, K12,690 for three-phase prepaid, and K42,993 for maximum-demand customers. These totals include labour, transport, the meter itself and 30% excise duty and VAT on the meter.
• Export price. The 2026 net metering reference tariff is US 6 cents per unit, which the ERB puts at K1.35/kWh. The ERB also caps a distribution use-of-system charge that ZESCO may levy at K0.66/kWh. Ask ZESCO exactly how that charge applies to your account before you count on export income.
• Change of ownership. If you sell the property, the net metering account closes, and the new owner must apply again.

The key comparison: a unit you export earns credit at around K1.35, while a unit you avoid buying at the top of your month saves K2.42 to K3.45 before tax. Using your own solar power is worth far more than selling it. Net metering makes sense for surplus you genuinely cannot use, not as a reason to oversize a system.

Frequently asked questions

Why did I get fewer units than my neighbour for the same amount?

Because the bands count per household meter, per month. If your neighbour had bought little so far that month and you had already bought a lot, their kwacha bought R1 and R2 units at K0.35 and K1.00, while yours bought R3 or R4 units at K2.42 or K3.45.

Do I have to apply for the lifeline tariff?

No. In October 2025 the ERB rejected ZESCO's proposal to target the lifeline by area, and kept the price of the first 200 units a month unchanged for residential customers. Every residential meter gets those bands each month.

Are ZESCO prices going up in November 2026?

Possibly. The current rates are approved until 31 October 2026. ZESCO's tariff page shows higher pre-approved figures for 2026/2027, but the ERB requires a True-Up Report and review before any adjustment. Wait for an ERB announcement rather than bulk-buying on a rumour.

Is the price per unit on the ERB table what I actually pay?

No. The ERB's schedules state that the energy charges exclude 3% excise duty and 16% VAT. Together they add roughly a fifth. Your token slip or bill shows the breakdown.

Can a landlord charge me more than ZESCO's tariff for electricity?

Your lease governs what you agreed to pay. Ask to see the ZESCO token slips or bills behind any electricity charge, and if you share a meter with other tenants, push for a separate one: on the block tariff, sharing alone raises everyone's cost. Keep copies of what you pay, because a written record is your evidence if the charge is ever disputed.

Last reviewed: September 2026. General information, not financial, tax or legal advice. Tariffs are set by the Energy Regulation Board and can change; check erb.org.zm for the current schedule.