Rachael Brown reported this story on Tuesday, July 7, 2015 08:30:00

ASHLEY HALL: There's been yet another call to shake up the electricity market.



Research by The Brotherhood of St Laurence has found a massive rise in power bills in Victoria.



The welfare organisation wants an urgent review to consider limits on the “fixed charges” retailers can impose.



Rachael Brown reports.



RACHAEL BROWN: A report commissioned by the Brotherhood of St Laurence has found the state's retailers are charging more than triple what they were six years ago.



JOHN THWAITES: A rise of 212% is just totally unacceptable.



RACHAEL BROWN: Former Victorian deputy premier, John Thwaites, is the chairperson of the Brotherhood's Energy, Equity and Climate Change Program.



JOHN THWAITES: In many states we've seen a big rise in the overall electricity bill, largely because of network costs, that is the poles and wires.



In Victoria network costs and wholesale generation of electricity haven't risen in cost much. The big price rise has been in the charges that retailers put on households for sending out the bills and marketing their products.



RACHAEL BROWN: The report conducted by Carbon and Energy Markets compares the wholesale electricity price with charges later added by retailers.



Last year the wholesale price estimate was around $250, yet add retail charges and the bill comes to $421.



Mr Thwaites says retailers' fixed charge component is most worrying.



JOHN THWAITES: The fixed charge proportion of the bill is very high, 30 to 40 per cent, and that particularly hits low income households who tend to use less electricity and that means the fixed charge is a greater proportion of their bill than it is for wealthier households.



Fixed charges also mean that there's no incentive to be energy efficient.



RACHAEL BROWN: The Energy Retailers Association Of Australia's interim CEO Alex Fraser says its members' hands are largely tied.



ALEX FRASER: There are a number of costs which are specific to the Victorian market which includes metering and infrastructure charges - all of which are out of retailers' hands.



RACHAEL BROWN: The Brotherhood of St Laurence is calling for an urgent review of the electricity retail market by the Victorian Government and the state's Essential Services Commission.



John Thwaites again:



JOHN THWAITES: Establishing more transparency about what retail costs are, and potentially look at some form of limit or regulation over high fixed retail charges.



RACHAEL BROWN: Could this have implications for retailers nationally?



I know NSW recently voted to partially privatise its electricity network, whereas Queensland has deferred moving to full retail price deregulation.



JOHN THWAITES: Interestingly we've seen big price rises in government-owned distributors in NSW and Queensland, but the real issue is for Victoria and for its deregulated market, how much are the retailers charging?



Around Australia we're seeing some states now moving to a deregulated retail electricity market and the question will have to be asked for them: will prices go up there as prices have gone up in Victoria?



ASHLEY HALL: John Thwaites, chairman of the Brotherhood of St Laurence's energy, equity and climate change program, ending that report from Rachael Brown.