ScoMo’s dirty little secret – electricity price hikes, hidden during poll, to be revealed
A surge in wholesale energy prices is putting pressure on energy retailers to pass on a hike in prices to consumers with a likely rise expected to be revealed Thursday.
Wholesale prices have trebled in Queensland in the past year and while they only make up about a third of the overall consumer bill market experts believe that energy retailers will be forced to pass on the extra costs.
Last month the Australian Energy Market Operator said wholesale prices in Queensland and NSW were significantly higher than in southern states because of the reliance on coal, a commodity that had soared in value in recent months because of supply constraints.
One analyst said “wholesale electricity prices had reached stratospheric levels”.
The spike has already led to regional Queensland electricity supplier LPE telling 20,000 customers to go elsewhere because it could no longer supply at a competitive price. LPE has also suspended its shares from trading on the ASX.
Commercial gas supplier Weston Energy also stopped trading this week because of cash flow issues.
Wholesale electricity prices in the National Electricity Market for the first quarter of 2022 jumped up 67 per cent from the December quarter and 141 per cent on the March quarter in 2021, driven by increased demand, coal generator outages, which includes the Callide C plant in central Queensland and higher electricity-generating fuel costs.
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The Victorian regulator announced a 5 per cent average increase in standing offer power bills from July 1.
The escalation in gas prices on the east coast in May builds on April’s 46 per cent jump and is forcing manufacturers that rely on wholesale tariffs to the brink of closure, as well as squeezing retailers caught in between.
