Why your power bill may go up even though the regulator says prices are going down | The Business

Electricity users across a number of retailers have reported receiving notices of rate increases, despite the default offer falling in many markets. Across big parts of Australia — from Queensland to Victoria and South Australia — thousands of electricity customers have been getting similar notices. Richard Foxworthy from comparison service Bill Hero says some retailers appear to be raising their cheapest prices to claw back profit. The Australian Energy Council, which represents power retailers, says there have been changes to the way charges are applied, and a large number of customers should see bill reductions this year. Under changes approved by the regulator, energy companies will now be able to recover more of their costs via fixed — or daily supply — charges. Offsetting this will be proportionally lower usage charges, which is likely to leave lower energy users worse off. The Australian Energy Council CEO Louisa Kinnear said "it's probably more just a rebalancing of the fixed and unit charges on their bill." The Australian Energy Regulator says default offers are merely a safety net for consumers and it's up to retailers to set their own prices. The regulator urged people to shop around and said they are free to change their energy plan at any time. Mr Foxworthy said acquisition pricing is probably the one corner of the energy market that is genuinely competitive and staying loyal to provider can be costly. He said fewer customers than one-in-ten customers are on default market offer deals and most are on more competitive plans. Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said household energy bills are going down on average. #ABCBusiness Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated. #ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia