“The city that gave India its first electric streetlight still runs on half the national per-capita power.”
Kolkata Electricity & Energy
West Bengal state electricity (CEA) and Kolkata city-level CESC data
West Bengal consumes 543 kWh of electricity per person per year— barely half the national average of 1,031 kWh, and roughly a third of Gujarat's 1,592 kWh. State consumption has grown from 38,120 GWh to 51,800 GWh over the past decade, but the per-capita gap has not closed.
Kolkata itself is the exception inside that picture. CESC, the private utility that has supplied the city since 1899, runs transmission and distribution losses of 7.0% — against 16.9% for West Bengal as a whole and around 17% nationally. The city loses far less of what it buys than almost anywhere else in India.
About this data
What this page shows
Category-wise consumption for West Bengal, per-capita consumption against the national average, CESC peak system demand, transmission and distribution losses, and a comparison across major states. Industrial use leads at about 31.5% of consumption, with domestic use close behind at roughly 29% — a share that has grown steadily over the decade. CESC now serves 35.9 lakh consumers and sold 16,350 million units in 2023–24, and the share of peak demand actually met has risen from 91.2% to 96.8%.
Where the data comes from
Central Electricity Authority General Review for state-level figures covering 2014–15 to 2023–24, and CESC annual reports for Kolkata city figures from 2018–19 onward.
Limitations worth knowing
State and city figures are not interchangeable. CEA reports at West Bengal level, so the per-capita and category splits describe the state, not Kolkata — a heavily urban, largely residential city will differ substantially from a state average that includes rural districts. CESC's licence area also does not map exactly onto municipal boundaries. Low T&D losses are a genuine operational achievement, but they measure technical and commercial loss in the network, not affordability or reliability for any given household.
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