Remember when electricity prices rose over 20% in 2012 around the time of the carbon tax? Well, we may be in for a comparable bill shock as the wholesale cost of power has been steadily increasing over the last 12 months, and right now it is up over 30%.
Many electricity retailers have incorrectly anticipated a drop in the cost of power and kept their prices low.
They’re using the new financial year to increase their prices to account for the 30% increase in the cost of the wholesale power. Depending on your state, the cost of network charges changes annually in July and it is typically the time when we see increases passed through.
The retailers are not the big bad guys here though. They’ve been running on pretty thin margins for a year or so. One retailer, Go Energy, priced their power too low and when the market kept increasing, they paid the ultimate price: going into administration on 2nd April 2016.
Choice Energy understands from multiple retailers that a further 10% or higher increase is expected to be passed on to customers this calendar year.
What to Expect
A price rise
When to Expect It
In your July bill that will arrive in August. Some retailers will wait another month or two to differentiate.
