“West Bengal uses under two-thirds of India's per-capita electricity, and Kolkata's private grid reports losing far less of it on the way.”
Kolkata Electricity & Energy
West Bengal state electricity (CEA) and CESC figures for its Kolkata licence area
West Bengal used 893 kWh of electricity per person in 2023–24, about 64% of the all-India figure of 1,400 kWh and roughly a third of Gujarat's 2,473 kWh. Utility sales in the state rose from 48,290 GWh in 2018–19 to 64,410 GWh in 2023–24, after a COVID-year dip of 4.1% in 2020–21.
Kolkata's private distributor, CESC, reported a transmission and distribution loss of 6.9% in 2023–24, down from 8.4% in 2020–21. CEA puts West Bengal's T&D loss at 17.18% and the all-India figure at 17.63% for the same year. The company and CEA compute these differently, so read the gap as indicative rather than exact.
About this data
What this page shows
West Bengal electricity sales by consumer category, per-capita consumption, peak demand and the share of it met, and T&D losses, all for 2018–19 to 2023–24, plus a 2023–24 per-capita comparison with selected states. For Kolkata, it shows CESC's metered units sold, system peak demand and reported T&D loss. In 2023–24 industry took 37.8% of state utility sales and domestic users 33.8%; CESC sold 10,922 million units to its own consumers against a peak of 2,606 MW, and West Bengal met its full 11,626 MW peak.
Where the data comes from
State figures come from the Central Electricity Authority's All India Electricity Statistics – General Review, editions 2020 to 2025 (data years 2018–19 to 2023–24): Table 1.7 (total consumption by ultimate consumers, utilities), Table 6.4 (state-wise system losses), Table 7.4 (peak demand and peak met), Table 9.3 (consumption by category) and Table 9.9 (per-capita consumption). Kolkata figures come from CESC Ltd annual reports for 2018–19 to 2023–24 (the “Quantitative Information” note for units sold; Management Discussion & Analysis for peak demand and consumer numbers) and CESC's November 2025 investor presentation (exchange filing) for its Kolkata T&D loss.
Limitations worth knowing
2023–24 is the latest year with a complete state dataset; the General Review for 2024–25 is not yet published, and editions covering years before 2018–19 are no longer available from CEA, so the series starts there. CEA reports at state level, so the per-capita and category figures describe West Bengal, not Kolkata, and the category table includes DVC's sales to ultimate consumers in its West Bengal area. CESC's licence area (about 567 sq km) spans parts of Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly and North and South 24 Parganas, so it does not match the KMC boundary. CESC's T&D loss is company-reported and is not computed the same way as CEA's state figure; CESC has not published a Kolkata figure for 2018–19 or 2019–20. CESC publishes consumer numbers only rounded to 0.1 million, and no figure was available for 2021–22. Low T&D losses measure network efficiency, not affordability or reliability for any given household.
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