Power prices to soar, warn energy bosses Alinta’s Jeff Dimery, Origin Energy’s Frank Calabria

Households face further inflation pain as power prices are tipped to soar by at least 35 per cent next year, amid a choppy energy transition and the closure of coal plants.

Power prices in Australia will soar by at least 35 per cent in 2023 amid a choppy energy transition and the closure of coal plants, the nation’s fourth-largest electricity retailer said.

“Next year using the current market prices, tariffs are going up a minimum 35 per cent,” Alinta chief executive Jeff Dimery told an energy conference in Sydney.

“It’s horrendous, it’s unpalatable. We don’t want energy consumers getting their power bills and setting fire to them.”

“There are real issues around energy pricing that we’ve got right now. And I think the public are going to get more attuned to that.”

One of the big three retailers – Origin Energy – said wholesale prices indicated a leap in electricity prices was likely to hit the market once new tariffs were set in July 2023.

“Based on current wholesale prices, those orders of magnitude sound familiar to me,” Origin CEO Frank Calabria said.

Power prices in Australia will soar by at least 35 per cent in 2023, warn energy bosses.

EnergyAustralia said wholesale prices had soared, which would flow through to household bills.

“Just looking at the wholesale markets and buying as a retailer you’re selling retail energy, and you have to buy the energy in the wholesale market,” EnergyAustralia CEO Mark Collette said.

“Just go back a year, wholesale electricity prices are up four times from $60 per megawatt hour to $240MWh. Gas is up from $10 a gigajoule to $50 on the current ACCC netback. That’s four or five times, and it’s massive. It’s putting a lot of upward pressure on tariffs.”

Second-tier retailer Momentum Energy said there would be price hikes.

“I think we all see there are going to be big increases next year,” Momentum managing director Lisa Chiba said.

Originally published as Power prices to soar, warn energy bosses Alinta’s Jeff Dimery, Origin Energy’s Frank Calabria