WESTERN suburbs residents are being urged to shop around for a better electricity deal this year before steep price rises bite into the family budget.
Analysis by electricity price comparison website www.goswitch.com.au shows western suburbs residents could be hit with increases of up to $400 a year. The figure is based on consumers who have average household consumption, are with the default retailer for their area and are on a default plan from that retailer.
Ben Freund, chief executive of www.goswitch.com.au, said Victoria had one of the world's most competitive energy markets and consumers could get a better deal if they shopped around.
Mr Freund said electricity costs were rising because Victoria's growing population added to demand pressure, but supply of electricity had not significantly increased in the past 20 years.
He said the Federal Government had mandated renewable energy targets and renewable energy was more expensive.
"A lot of consumers are going to start seeing nasty bills in the first quarter of 2010 because the new rates have kicked in from January," Mr Freund said.
A Melton resident, who wanted to be known only as Jim, said he called his retailer to find out what his increase would be and was told it would be 27 per cent.
"I called to find out [what the price increase would be], then I could shop around for a better deal. Once again, the poor people of the western suburbs are getting shafted."
Powercor Australia and CitiPower spokesman Ryan Auger said there would be a small cost increase, between $40 and $60 a year, to cover the cost of installing 1.1 million 'smart meters'. But any price increases for non-regulated costs were at the discretion of the retailer.
A number of retailers contacted by the Express Telegraph indicated there would be small increases to bills, mainly due to the increased cost of power on the wholesale market.
An AGL spokesperson said the average increase for an AGL household in Melton would be about $2.65 a week (including GST) for electricity and about $1.12 per week (including GST) for gas. "The factors influencing the electricity price increase include the rollout of Victoria's new 'smart electricity meters' by distribution companies, as well as increased operating costs and network costs. Network costs include the charges that AGL pays to distributors in order to provide electricity to customers.
"The factors influencing the gas price increase include a rise in the cost of sourcing gas and increased network costs. It is also impacted by the review of AGL's prices, which includes the cost of providing energy to our customers."
Mr Freund said consumers should not be afraid to shop around. Price comparisons could be made quickly and a five-minute shop-around on the internet could save "serious money".
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