Open Electricity and Water Accounts Malaysia 2026

The keys work, the lights do not, and there is a folded bill on the floor addressed to somebody who moved out in March. In the group chat a cousin says just pay the old bill first, lah, faster. Somebody else says no need, not your account. Alamak. Both are guessing, and one of those guesses costs money.

Electricity and water are not one job. Two laws, two regulators, two deposits, two refund deadlines. Neither deposit is a number somebody at the counter decides: one is in a set of regulations from 1990, the other in a schedule gazetted in 2014 and still in force. Read them once and the counter stops being a negotiation.

Quick Answer: an electricity deposit covers the estimated charges for 2 months of supply, and you get 7 days from the demand to pay it. For water in Peninsular Malaysia the deposit is a fixed schedule, RM50 for a flat or low-cost house up to RM100 for a two-storey house, with a hard ceiling of RM100 on a flat. Moving into a house where TNB’s service cable, meter board and internal wiring are all in good condition usually counts as a change of account holder rather than a new supply application: TNB calls it Tenancy Change, and it costs RM10 stamp duty plus RM3.00 on low voltage — though TNB can still charge for new infrastructure if its own equipment needs replacing. When you leave and close the account, the electricity deposit — after deducting any amount owed — must come back not later than 30 days after termination; separately, give at least 3 working days’ notice before moving out, or you stay liable for charges that accrue afterward.

• Start here: work out which of three situations you are in — a newly built premise, an existing premise you are switching on yourself, or an existing premise still in the previous person’s name. The last one is a Tenancy Change, and it is the most common by far.
• Four clocks: 7 days to pay an electricity deposit once demanded; 7 working days of written notice before supply can be cut for not paying it; 3 working days of notice before you quit, or the last bill keeps running; 30 days for the electricity deposit to come back.
• Catch: the old bill on the floor is not yours and cannot be made yours. But leave your own bill unpaid, and the same licensee may refuse to supply you at the next house you live in.

Power accountThe depositWater rates

Two Accounts, Two Different Rulebooks

Electricity first. What a licensee may ask you for, and what it owes you back, is set by the Licensee Supply Regulations 1990, made under section 53 of the Electricity Supply Act 1990 and in operation since 15 November 1990. They are short, published in full by the Energy Commission, and settle almost everything argued about at a counter.

Water sits somewhere else entirely. In Peninsular Malaysia the deposit, the meter installation fee and the disconnection charge all come from the Water Services Industry (Deposit, Fees and Charges for Water Services) Regulations 2014, gazetted as P.U. (A) 37/2014 under sections 84, 85 and 179 of the Water Services Industry Act 2006 and in force since 1 February 2014. The regulator is SPAN, which describes itself as the national regulatory body for the water and sewerage industry for Peninsular Malaysia and the Federal Territory of Labuan.

That geography matters: the water deposit is the same number in Kangar and in Kota Bharu, because it is a federal schedule and not an operator’s price list — and Sabah and Sarawak sit outside it, which is why they get their own section. Third item on the same doorstep: sewerage is a separate licence again, held by Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd for the whole peninsula and Labuan. Different bill, not part of opening a water account.

Electricity: Which of Three Situations You Are In

Most of the confusion about “applying for TNB” comes from three different situations reading the same page. The split decides both the paperwork and the price.

A newly built premise. The supply infrastructure does not exist yet. For a load up to 100A you appoint an Electrical Contractor registered with the Energy Commission, who does the wiring or applies for you; above 100A it must be an Electrical Consultant Engineer registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia. The contractor files the application, you sign the Electricity Supply contract, and you pay the quoted connection charges plus RM10 stamp duty and the deposit, all upfront. The contractor separately files Form G, the supervision and completion certificate, and Form H, the test certificate, with a self-estimation form, a location map and photographs.

An existing premise you are switching on yourself. You may apply without a contractor, but only if the TNB service cable and meter board are present and in good condition, no renovation involving the internal wiring has been done, and the internal wiring works. Then it is the form, the contract, reconnection fees of RM3.00 for low voltage or RM80.00 for medium and high voltage, plus RM10 stamp duty.

An existing premise with somebody else’s name on the account. This covers a resale house and almost every tenancy, and TNB has a name for it: Tenancy Change, the opening of a new account by a customer who moves into an existing premise with ready electrical installations. TNB’s page says it applies when you buy from the previous owner, or when you are a tenant who wants the account in your own name. The paperwork is thinner than the other two — a completed and signed application form, a copy of your identification document, and a Declaration Form — and it goes in online through the myTNB portal or at the Kedai Tenaga nearest the premise.

One term decides which column applies: a domestic consumer occupies a private dwelling not used as a hotel or boarding house, and not used for any business, trade, professional activity or service.

What TNB wants to see, and what happens if you cannot produce it

The identity document has to be an Identification Card, Army ID, Police ID or passport only, copied on both sides and crossed at the top left corner with “For TNB Purpose Only” or “Untuk Kegunaan TNB Sahaja”. That second instruction is not decoration; a counter can send you back out to a photocopy shop for it.

Then proof you are entitled to be there, and here the page is unusually explicit about the consequence of not having it. An owner produces the land title, the latest title search or the strata title; or a duly stamped Sale and Purchase Agreement showing seller, purchaser, the full address and both signatures; or a complete Proclamation of Sale. In the absence of any of those 3 documents, the applicant must apply as a non-owner or occupier instead. If you have bought but the title has not come through and the agreement is unstamped, that is the sentence that decides your afternoon.

A tenant produces a stamped tenancy agreement still within its term, showing owner, tenant, the full address and both signatures. Without one, TNB accepts an Akuan Pengesahan Permastautinan — a declaration of residence from a Ketua Kampung, Penghulu or the MPKK — plus — if any exists — a document showing you occupy the premises, such as a utility bill (for example Indah Water Konsortium), a landline bill, quit rent or assessment, or official correspondence in your name. The word stamped does the work there, which is one more reason to stamp the tenancy agreement even when the landlord says never mind.

If it really is a new building: the connection charge

The connection charge pays for building the supply infrastructure, and it can run into four figures — though the bulk-meter water deposit further down this page reaches four figures too. TNB publishes it as a table, on terms applied to the invoice since 15 January 2021.

Two conditions sit under it: the rates apply only within 6 km of the nearest available supply able to meet the load, and they assume the substation land and building are surrendered or leased to TNB at a nominal RM10, or that no substation is needed at all. And the line most people skip: if TNB has to provide new infrastructure at an existing premises, a new connection charge is imposed instead of the RM3.00 reconnection fee.

The Deposit, and the Rebate Sitting on Top of It

Regulation 5(1) is the whole basis of it: a consumer may be required to deposit, within 7 days of demand, a sum sufficient to cover the estimated charges for 2 months’ supply of energy and 2 months’ rental of equipment, if any. TNB says the same and adds how the estimate is built: on an average of 6 months of the customer’s usage.

Three details there are worth more than they look. The deposit may be paid in cash, cheque, banker’s draft, cashier’s order, bank guarantee or any other negotiable instrument from a licensed financial institution, and it is adjusted as the estimated charges change. It is a security, not a payment in advance, and it does not relieve you of liability for the bill. And if you do not pay it, supply may be cut only on a notice by registered post or by hand to your registered address, stating the reason and the date, at least 7 working days beforehand — never on the eve of a weekend or public holiday.

TNB applies the same logic in both directions. If the average of 2 months’ bills is less than the deposit paid, TNB refunds the excess upon the customer’s request; if it is more, you pay the additional deposit within a grace period at the nearest Pusat Khidmat Pelanggan TNB or a one-stop collection agency. That first half is a live entitlement worth checking on — this research did not establish how often it is actually claimed. If the household shrank, or the air-conditioner died, the deposit you paid years ago may now be larger than two months of what you actually use.

Two numbers for the rebate, and why both are real

Here is the part that surprises people. Regulation 5(5) says that where a deposit has been collected, the licensee shall pay a sum equivalent to 5 per cent per annum — or such percentage as the Minister determines — as a rebate on the deposit held, other than one paid as a bank guarantee, pro rata from the date of supply until termination, credited to the consumer’s account at the end of January every year.

TNB publishes a different figure: an annual rate of 2.5%, simple interest credited once a year, and from 1 January 2017 accumulating into the total deposit shown on the bill. Its worked example: RM1,000 held at 31 December 2016 earns RM25.00, for a total deposit of RM1,025.

Both numbers sit on official pages, and the regulation explains how they coexist: it fixes 5 per cent but expressly allows the Minister to set a different percentage. No ministerial order fixing 2.5% was found on the Energy Commission’s site, so this guide does not claim which governs your account. What it does say is that a rebate exists, that it is credited annually rather than paid out, and that a bank guarantee — an option where the deposit exceeds RM2,000 — earns none of it. If you have never seen that credit on a bill, that is the line to ask about.

Water: One Schedule for the Whole Peninsula

Water is simpler, and better for you. Regulation 3 of P.U. (A) 37/2014: any consumer of a category of premises in column (2) of Part I of the First Schedule who opens a water supply account shall pay the deposit at the rate in column (3). Not a rate the operator sets. A rate in a gazette.

A private fire hydrant on its own meter is RM200 and a water kiosk RM750. Construction water, and any other commercial or industrial premises not listed above, is the estimated monthly demand you declare, times the water supply service rate, times 2 — the same two-months logic as electricity, from a different direction.

It does not stay frozen. Regulation 4 has the licensee review it every 31 January for homes, and every 6 months for commercial premises; an account opened less than 6 months before a review date waits for the next one, and places of worship, community halls and government institutions are exempt. For a residential account open a full 12 months before the review date, the formula is average monthly consumption over the 12 months before the review month, times the water supply service rate, times 2; open less than 12 months, the average is taken over however many months there are.

Two guardrails follow, both in your favour. Whatever the review produces, regulation 6(3) says the maximum deposit for a flat or low-cost house shall not exceed RM100. And regulation 6(5) blocks any adjustment where the difference is under RM5, with the schedule rate as the floor. So a flat cannot be walked up by a run of hot months, and nobody gets a bill line for eighty sen.

The same regulations price the small stuff, which tells you which part of a quotation is a gazetted fee. Installing a household meter under 50 mm is RM40, rising by size to RM120. Each disconnection or reconnection is RM35 under 50 mm, and the disconnection notice is RM3. A meter test costs a deposit of RM50 for a meter under 50 mm; 50 mm and above, the deposit is the actual cost of the test.

One thing before you trust an older article on this, including an older one of ours: these regulations were amended in 2025. P.U. (A) 274/2025 was made on 25 August 2025 and came into force on 1 September 2025, inserting a definition of pusat data, a new regulation 13a charging data centres a monthly consumption guarantee, and changes to developer capital contributions. It does not amend the First Schedule. The household rates above are the 2014 ones, and they are still current.

Who Supplies the Water Where You Live

There is no national water company. Each state has one licensed service operator, and SPAN’s individual licence register settles it. The table below came from that register; each operator was then opened on its own site. Where an operator publishes nothing, the cell says so rather than filling in a plausible answer.

Four of those rows are worth a sentence of their own.

Air Selangor, which calls itself the largest water services provider in Malaysia and covers Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, runs it all online: Change of Ownership to move an account to a new holder, Close an Account to close it and get the deposit refunded, and Request a Refund for credit on an active account.

Pengurusan Air Pahang Berhad is one operator that publishes the whole cost list instead of saying it depends on the premises. The form is RM1.00 for an individual account and RM5.00 for a commercial one; on top sit the deposit by premises type, installation by meter size, RM10.00 stamp duty, and a capital contribution where the price of the premises is RM70,000 and above. It wants the identity card, the certificate of fitness for occupation, a consent letter for water supply entry from the Land Office, FELDA or the local authority, a floor plan, and the bank’s copy of the Sale and Purchase Agreement if the title is not out.

Syarikat Air Melaka Berhad has the rule that catches anyone sending a relative: to pay the deposit and sign the water supply agreement, the named person must attend SAMB personally. Its checklist also wants the Sale and Purchase Agreement, auction contract or deed of gift, the cukai pintu, cukai tanah or land grant, the owner’s identity card, a stamped tenancy agreement, and form SAMB 227 B for plumber approval. Syarikat Air Terengganu takes applicants aged 18 and above only, and asks for a copy of a neighbouring premises’ water bill, a document this research did not find requested by the other operators checked.

Editor’s note: on the SATU page as read on 21 September 2026, the panel headed Tukar Penghuni holds the instructions for cutting supply and returning the deposit, and Tutup Akaun holds the instructions for a new consumer taking over. Read the panels, not the headings.

Moving Out: Three Working Days, and the Bill That Follows You

This is the section almost nobody reads until it is too late, and the one with real money in it. Regulation 3(2): a consumer who quits supplied premises without giving the licensee notice, received at least 3 working days before quitting, is liable for all charges accruing up to whichever of three things happens first — the third working day after the notice is finally given, the next day the meter has to be read, or the day a subsequent occupier requires supply.

Hand over the keys and say nothing, and you stay liable under whichever of those three points lands first — not simply “until somebody else moves in”: if the next scheduled meter reading falls before a new tenant arrives, that reading is your cut-off instead. TNB says the same: if you are vacating a premise indefinitely, you should close the account, and until that is done you remain liable for the consumption and the payment.

The other half of regulation 3 should reassure anybody staring at a stranger’s unpaid bill on the floor. Where a consumer quits premises without paying charges due, the licensee may refuse to supply that consumer at any other premises until it is paid — but is not entitled to require that amount from the next occupier. The debt travels with the person, not the house. Which also means your own unpaid final bill can be waiting at your next address.

Closing the electricity account, and getting the deposit back

Four steps: submit the Close of Account form with the documents; pay the outstanding charges on the latest bill at a Kedai Tenaga, any TNB authorised channel or the TNB Payment Gateway; TNB personnel take the final reading and cut off supply to fix the charges up to the closing day, for which the premise must be accessible; then the refund. An individual needs only a signed form and a copy of the IC or passport, lodged online, at the nearest Kedai Tenaga or by registered post.

Two published deadlines cover the refund. The regulation says the licensee shall refund not later than 30 days after termination, to the consumer or a successor in title, trustee, personal representative, administrator or anyone entitled to it, less any amount then due. TNB gives the arithmetic and the method: deposit minus final charge, by bank transfer first, posted cheque, or into another active account of yours, within 1 month. Where the registered owner has died, a next-of-kin may close the account and claim the deposit with a signed form, the death certificate, and an Indemnity Bond Form stamped by LHDN.

Closing the water account

Regulation 8(1) is worth quoting carefully, because the wording is unusual. In the Malay text SPAN publishes, on termination the deposit shall be refunded without interest, in cash or by cheque, dalam tempoh tidak kurang daripada dua bulan from the date of termination — literally, within a period of not less than 2 months. That sets a floor on when the money moves, not a ceiling, which is the biggest difference from the electricity side and its hard outer limit of 30 days. Regulation 8(2) lets the licensee deduct anything outstanding first.

Operators add steps on top. Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang wants the application at least 3 days before the termination date, on Form M or by letter giving the account number, address, date, postal address, telephone and email — by post to P.O. Box 246, 10730, Pulau Pinang, or at any Customer Care Centre. Pengurusan Air Pahang Berhad closes accounts at the district counter and asks for the identity card, the original deposit receipt and bank details. Syarikat Air Terengganu is blunter: arrears settled first, original receipt handed over.

Which produces the most useful filing habit here: put the water deposit receipt somewhere you will still find it in five years. At least two operators want the original back before returning the money, and a house move is exactly when that paper disappears.

One separation worth saying out loud, because it comes up in every tenancy argument: these deposits are held by TNB and a water licensee under two federal regulations. They are not the deposit your landlord holds. If the meters stayed in the landlord’s name throughout, the utility deposit refund belongs to whoever is entitled to it under the regulations, not automatically to you as tenant — and any claim you have to that money from the landlord is a landlord and tenant dispute instead.

Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan

None of the water schedule above reaches Sabah or Sarawak. SPAN’s remit is Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan, so there is no federal water deposit schedule in the two Borneo states and this guide does not invent one. Electricity is different: both states publish a procedure, and both read like TNB’s with the names changed.

Sabah. Sabah Electricity states that under the Electricity Supply Act 1990 it may collect a deposit equivalent to 2 months of consumption, on the average of the previous 6 months from the latest bill, revised every 6 months. For a new account it comes from the declared Maximum Demand in kW stated in the application form and PD-9. Payment is at the nearest Customer Service Counter and only its own official receipts count as proof: below RM30,000 by cash or card; between RM30,000 and RM50,000 by bank guarantee, or cash or card with approval; above RM50,000 by bank guarantee only.

Its Change of Name is the Sabah equivalent of a Tenancy Change, and Sabah Electricity says why it matters: do it whenever the occupier changes, so the liability of non-payment does not stay with the registered owner. The route is termination form plus application form, a registered wiring contractor for Form G and Form H, connection charges plus RM10 stamp duty, the deposit, then supply. Closing means attending the nearest office, settling the current bill and letting a technician take the final reading; the refund is deposit minus final charge.

Sarawak. Sarawak Energy advises hiring a registered contractor and lists the documents: a completed AC01 form, a photocopy of the NRIC, a registered Sale and Purchase Agreement, land title, tenancy agreement, offer letter or Memorandum of Transfer where applicable, and business registration and company stamp where a company is involved; a new application can also be made online. Change of Name is required as soon as you buy or rent, outstanding bills must be settled, and — the detail unique to Sarawak — premises vacant more than 1 year need the internal wiring tested first. Terminating means surrendering the original deposit receipt; if it is lost or the particulars do not match, a Statutory Declaration, and for a deceased owner a Statutory Declaration and Letter of Administration.

Labuan sits inside SPAN’s area for water, but the register names no retail water service licensee for it. Its only Labuan entry is a company licensed to run the Kampung Lawa Gadong treatment plant in Beaufort, with 4 balancing tanks on Pulau Eone and the pipeline to the Labuan Water Supply Division’s pump house. Opening a water account there means asking that division, not a state water company.

Nobody Outside the Payment Counter Should Be Taking Your Cash

Syarikat Air Perlis publishes a notice headed Jangan Tertipu! Permohonan Baru/Sewaan — do not be cheated, new applications and rentals. Four points from SAP’s own notice, and worth carrying to every other operator too.

• Do not hand money to a middleman. Pay only through the channels your own operator publishes — SAP’s own notice names its payment counter; TNB, for one, also accepts its Kedai Tenaga, authorised payment channels and its Payment Gateway — and always take an official receipt.
• Pipework is done by a plumber licensed by SPAN, whose list is on the operator’s notice board and on SPAN’s site.
• Giving or receiving anything of value to smooth a transaction is corruption, reportable to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
• Staff other than payment counter staff are not permitted to accept money from consumers at all.

The same shape appears elsewhere without the warning label. Sabah Electricity recognises only its own official receipts as proof of payment. TNB routes a new-supply application through a contractor registered with the Energy Commission, not through whoever knocked on the door. And SPAN publishes the plumber permit categories, IPA Type A1 and Type A2, with the register of holders — the list that Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang, Pengurusan Air Pahang Berhad, Air Kelantan and Syarikat Air Perlis all point applicants to.

If something goes wrong on the water side, the regulator takes complaints directly: SPAN, 63000 Cyberjaya, on 03–8317 9333, [email protected], WhatsApp 013 388 5000. For electricity, TNB CareLine is 1–300–88–5454, weekdays 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM and weekends and public holidays to 5:00 PM.

Walaoeh Verdict

Do the Tenancy Change before you move the furniture, not after. Almost everyone moving into an existing house is in the third situation, and it is the cheap one: a form, an IC copy, a declaration, RM10 stamp duty and RM3.00 on low voltage. It stops being cheap if TNB’s cable or meter board is not in good condition, if renovation has touched the internal wiring, or if TNB itself needs to install new infrastructure — any of those turns it into a new supply application with a contractor attached. Do it while the stamped agreement is still on top of the pile.

Then set two reminders for the day you leave. One to give notice at least 3 working days before you quit, because that step decides whether the last bill stops on your moving date or keeps running until the earliest of the next meter-reading day or a new occupier asking for supply. One to find the original water deposit receipt. Everything else here is a number you can look up on the day; those two you cannot recover once the date has passed. Rules and schedules move — P.U. (A) 37/2014 was amended as recently as 2025 — so before paying anything, open the Energy Commission’s regulation and your operator’s page on the day, rather than trusting any summary, including this one.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Sources

Every page below was read on 21 September 2026. Both sets of regulations came from the Energy Commission’s and SPAN’s own publications, not a reprint, and the state water operators from SPAN’s licence register first.

• Energy Commission — Licensee Supply Regulations, 1990
• Licensee Supply Regulations 1990 — full text, with regulation 3 on quitting premises and regulation 5 on the deposit
• myTNB — Start & Stop Electricity: document lists and close-of-account steps
• myTNB — Change of Tenancy, the route for an existing premise
• myTNB — Security Deposit: the 2.5% rebate and the bank guarantee threshold
• SPAN — regulations, where P.U. (A) 37/2014 and P.U. (A) 274/2025 are published
• SPAN — individual licence register, naming the water operator for each state
• Air Selangor — Services: Change of Ownership, Close an Account, Request a Refund
• Pengurusan Air Pahang Berhad — Akaun Bekalan Air, the fullest cost list published
• Perbadanan Bekalan Air Pulau Pinang — Customer Services, Form M and the notice period
• Syarikat Air Perlis — Jangan Tertipu! Permohonan Baru/Sewaan
• Sarawak Energy — Customer Service, the AC01 form and change of name

About this guide. Written by an independent Malaysian and re-checked against official sources on a schedule. It is general information, not legal, tax, financial or medical advice — rules, fees and thresholds in Malaysia change, sometimes without notice. Where a decision affects your money or your rights, confirm with the official agency or a licensed professional before acting.