Chandigarh, June 25 -- In a move that could affect how businesses are billed for electricity, the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission has ordered the Chandigarh Power Distribution Limited (CPDL), the city's distribution utility, to abandon a contentious formula used for estimating power consumption and instead bill consumers based on their sanctioned load, at least for now.

Sanctioned load refers to the maximum electricity capacity a consumer is officially allowed to use at any given time, essentially, the size of their power connection approved by the utility. For instance, a small shop may have a sanctioned load of around 5 kW, while restaurants or showrooms may require 15-20 kW, and factories even higher. This approved limit becom...