VICTORIA — Just over a year after his predecessor scaled back a set of unpopular BC Hydro rate increases, Energy Minister Bill Bennett on Thursday warned British Columbians to brace for a new round of hikes.

"I can't imagine how it's a surprise to anybody that there's this upward pressure on rates," Bennett told reporters in Victoria, citing a need to build and maintain Hydro infrastructure across the province.

"You look at what BC Hydro is investing, you look at the fact that rates haven't gone up much for a very long time," he said, adding Hydro rates are among the cheapest in North America.

"There's no way that we can continue to sell power to customers — whether they're commercial, industrial or residential — at the rates that we're selling it right now," he continued.

"There's going to have to be some kind of rate increase and my job, as given to me by the premier in my mandate letter, is to make sure the increase is as small as possible."

In May 2012, then energy minister Rich Coleman scaled back rate increases from the 32.61 per cent over three years that had been requested by Hydro to about 17 per cent over three years.

The intervention — which came after a government review that identified a series of savings at Hydro — meant people saw an increase of just 1.44 per cent on their Hydro bills earlier this year, ahead of the provincial election in May.

At issue in that decision had been a question of how much revenue Hydro needed to operate each year in order to fund its massive infrastructure demands, and to pay down more than $2 billion in deferral accounts.

Coleman insisted at the time that his decision struck the balance of funding Hydro without gouging the consumer.

"We're trying to run this thing in a way that it has the money it needs to operate, stays within its debt-to-equity ratio and can do the capital job it does — which it's doing — and keep the rates competitive in North America," Coleman said at the time.

"I think this accomplishes all of that."

On Thursday, New Democratic Party energy critic John Horgan said he believes significant new rate hikes are now inevitable.

"The BC Liberals interfered in the last rate review application last March, cancelled the hearing in midstream and arbitrarily lowered the rates below what BC Hydro was asking for," said Horgan.

"That's before the cost overruns, that's before more chickens come home to roost," he added.

"I think we're looking at 10 per cent rate increases this year, and perhaps next year as well."

On Thursday, Bennett also fired a warning shot at Hydro for dropping repeated surprises on his desk since last month when he took over as minister of energy.

The first surprise, he said, was news of a $144-million jump in the cost for building the Northwest Transmission Line.

The second was a recent BC Hydro audit showing the Crown corporation does not have a proper disaster preparedness program, and therefore is not ready for a widespread emergency such as a major earthquake.