AGL and Origin both set to hike electricity bill prices

AFTER the state’s largest energy retailer hiked up power prices by hundreds, another one said it would do the same. But there’s good news for some gas users.

• Ouch! State’s largest power retailer to increase prices

ENERGY retailer Origin will increase electricity bills by 6.5 per cent or $117 a year.

The decision comes on top of AGL’s announcement on Wednesday of a 12 per cent — or $228 a year — increase for electricity as welfare agencies warned more retailers were likely to hike their prices.

Energy Australia refused to rule out price rises when contacted by The Advertiser.

But AGL gas customers will receive good news on Thursday when the retailer announces an average $100-a-year cut to gas bills.

The price rises from the state’s two biggest energy retailers take effect from next month.

St Vincent de Paul researcher Gavin Dufty said “all the retailers will change their prices’’.

“You can guarantee the other companies will follow like pigs to a trough,” he said.

Uniting Communities spokesman Mark Henley said he “had no doubt the other retailers will be increasing their prices”.

Cherie Harvey, of Clovelly Park, switched from AGL just a couple of months ago and will dodge the big energy bill increase. Pic: Naomi Jellicoe

The price hikes have prompted urgent calls from welfare groups for householders to shop around for cheaper deals to save hundreds of dollars a year.

SA Council of Social Services executive director Ross Womersley said he was surprised at the price hike and “didn’t understand the rationale’’ behind the increases.

“No doubt these decisions come at an extraordinary time with householders having just seen savings in network charges of around $140 a year,’’ Mr Womersley said.

Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis, himself an AGL customer, also urged customers to shop around and potentially save hundreds of dollars on their electricity bills.

He said the unjustified price rise “is a dramatic increase for South Australian families’’.

AGL said the price rise was “mainly driven by the cost and availability of coal and gas supply for electricity generation as well as the changing mix of generation output’’.

“The closure of the Port Augusta power station has contributed to the price changes.”

An Origin spokesman said “it’s important that we stay competitive while reflecting the costs we face as a retailer’’.

Opposition energy spokesman Dan van Holst Pellekaan blamed the Government’s promotion of renewable power generation for the price rise.

“Minister Koutsantonis is busy blaming everyone else for high electricity prices, while Premier Weatherill continues to rush towards wind power driving cheap baseload out of the market,’’ Mr van Holst Pellekaan said.

“Labor’s flawed electricity policy led to the closure of the Port Augusta Power Station and now the Weatherill Government is proposing to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars upgrading an interconnector so it can import coal-generated electricity from Victoria.“

Mr Koutsantonis said the state Liberals “chose not to explore greater interconnection with eastern states when they privatised our power assets in 1999 and we are seeing the fruits of that decision today’’.

Mr Henley called for a stakeholder energy summit to discuss how to reach the Government’s renewable energy targets at the cheapest cost.

AGL, which forecasts a $720 million profit this financial year, said it supported “a summit to discuss challenges facing the SA energy market”, while Mr Koutsantonis said he would consider a “cost-of-living summit”.

AGL said the average weekly electricity price increase would vary “substantially depending on a customer’s tariff type, their usage, and their existing energy plan’’.

The company also foreshadowed new fees for over-the-counter payments and paper bills in October.