An increase in the price of residential retail electricity looms as public hearings for new regulations for are underway nationwide.

After four years of planning and pilot program, China will cease its uniform pricing for residential users over the coming months, but 80 percent of residential users won't be affected, according to an announcement by the National Development and Reform Commission on Tuesday.

According to the new system, the vast majority of households will continue to pay the current price, and those customers whose power consumption is in the top 20 percent will pay more than 0.05 yuan per kilowatt-hour for the excess, and those in the top 5 percent will face a maximum charge of 0.3 yuan per kilowatt-hour.

About one-third of China's affluent households consume about two-thirds of the country's residential electricity, and the richest 5 percent consume about 24 percent of that, experts said.

China consumed about 4.7 trillion tons of electricity in 2011, 12 percent of which was consumed by residential users.

Last November, the country raised retail electricity prices for nonresidential customers by 0.03 yuan per kilowatt-hour and the on-grid electricity price by 0.026 yuan per kilowatt-hour.