Queensland's power prices will soar after July with a 22.6 per cent increase.

The average household will pay an extra $268 a year for electricity.

The Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) has blamed the spike mostly on rising network costs and state and federal government policy decisions.

QCA chairman Malcolm Roberts says it is the state's biggest hike in electricity prices in the past four or five years.

"It's very significant rise and we do appreciate this is going to strain many family's budgets, will also have an impact on businesses," he said.

"There are costs associated with the volatility in the wholesale market.

"There's costs associated with the carbon tax and uncertainty over the future of that, there are costs associated with increasing bad debts."

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When the QCA flagged a 21 per cent hike in February, the State Government said it was "unacceptable".

But the Government has ruled out softening the blow with a household rebate in next week's state budget.

Opposition MP Curtis Pitt says the decision to freeze prices in 2012 has contributed to this year's big hit.

"They are directly responsible for the magnitude of this price rise in terms of being more than just maybe a 10 per cent rise the Queensland families are now going to have to cop," he said.

Treasurer Tim Nicholls was not available for comment on Friday.

Business owners say they are already struggling with rising operating costs.

Try to survive

Amanda Rickman is a hairdresser in Townsville.

She says she is packing up her business to work from home in an attempt to reduce costs.

"I'm thinking it's just going to be a much better option to be able to cut overheads, still keep the business open - we still love what we do - and be able to survive through this," she said.

The broader business community says the Queensland Government needs to rethink how much it is spending on improving the existing electricity network.

Nick Behrens is from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland.

"All the emphasis in recent years has been towards improving reliability, whereas most consumers and most businesses will tell you that, you know, they're comfortable with existing reliability levels," he said.

"But they're not comfortable with the continued price rises they've been experiencing, so we need to transition away from this government gold-plating of our network."

The spike in power prices is not unique to Queensland.

In the past 12 months, New South Wales and South Australia have both had an 18 per cent increase in electricity prices.

In the Northern Territory, the price of power has blown out by 30 per cent.

Gold-plating

Erwin Jackson from the Climate Institute agrees expensive network improvements are part of the problem.

"Right across Australia over the last few years we've seen very significant increases in electricity prices," he said.

"It has been because we have been undertaking billions of dollars of investment in new infrastructure poles and wires.

"There's a real debate about how much of that we actually needed to spend.

"If we'd been smarter and invested, for example, very strongly in energy efficiency over the last decade or so we could have avoided spending a lot of that money."

QCA chairman Malcolm Roberts says policy decisions at the state and federal level have also added to the price.

"If you look at the combination of the carbon tax, the solar bonus, the renewable energy target it adds up to about 15 per cent of the bill," he said.

"That's a significant amount of money.

"That's the cost imposed, if you like, by various government policies - State and Commonwealth."

But the QCA also says it is unlikely households and businesses will be slugged with another big increase in the next financial year.

Unpredictable

Mr Jackson says that is an optimistic outlook but it is not out of the question.

"If we learn anything from the last few years, then predicting what happens in the electricity markets is highly uncertain," he said.

"If you'd asked someone five years ago if electricity demand in Australia would be falling they would have laughed at you - now we are seeing very large reductions in energy demand across the entire electricity network which we've never seen before.

"That said, there is some hope that electricity prices will, in real terms, start to fall quite soon.

"That will be driven by a range of factors, not least the fact that we're becoming more efficient."