What do we pay in electrical utility bill, KWH or KVAH?
You are charged by the utility for the actual energy consumed, which is really power component, KWH. However for industrial consumer, you can be charged for low power factor (as penalty) which affects transmission and generation efficiency. Norms for permissible power factor usually allow a lowest of .90 to .95 , or even higher, in different places . Industry is also billed for Maximum Demand (MD), in KVAH which is the maximum usage of total apparent energy in any half hour period during the billing cycle.