The Energex spokesman said the company was now aware of three stories based on allegations made by Ms Wilson, although she was identified in Wednesday's report. In an interview published in News Corp newspapers, Ms Wilson said she was asked to find the highest overseas borrowing level for finance to pay for capital expenditure to cover Energex's estimates of future infrastructure needs. Ms Wilson said she was asked to provide the highest borrowing interest rate to match an financial estimate – called the Weighted Average Cost of Capital - provided by senior Energex management. "Energex were looking at tactics to make sure the WACC remained as high as possible to ensure revenues also remained high," she told News Corp. "I was asked to find a rate that gave management the targeted number they were after."

Energex is asked to forecast its earnings from the government-owned assets for the next five years and that depends on the revenue it receives from power bills, over the cost of network expansion and overseas borrowings. Queensland's average household electricity bill will increase by $192 per year from July 2014. The previous year, Queensland's household epectricity price bills increased by $260 a year. Energex denied Ms Wilson's claims. "In early 2013 as part of our annual review of our forecast international money market, she and a couple of others in one part of the team were asked to find what was the top rate of what was current in the world market," the spokesman said.

"And others were asked to find the low rate." The staff members were asked to find the top and low rates of long-term interest borrowings in the international money market. "You need to know if we are borrowing, well this is what is worth at the time and the average cost of capital is based on what you can borrow the money at." Ms Wilson alleges Energex management asked her to borrow the money at the most expensive rate, meaning Energex would present a "high expense" case to Australian Energy Regulator, which ultimately decides how much Energex can claim back from customers though its power bills. The Energex spokesman said Ms Wilson was one part of a two-stage team that set the overseas borrowings for Energex future borrowings for its five-year corporate plan borrowings forecast from 2013-14 to 2018-19.

"So we needed to know what was the high rate and what was the low rate; and one team did the high rate and one team did the low rate," the spokesman said. The spokesman said the overseas borrowings were "totally unrelated" to the latest submission to the Australian Energy Regulator, which is preparing the case for the five years from 2015-20. "There is no link to the work she was doing in March last year and the work to do with our five-year proposal which is now." Energex said Ms Wilson was involved in only one part of the borrowings rate that was eventually set. "She was looking at her part – the high rate – and was not aware of the other part," the spokesman said.

"She found one figure – a high long-term international borrowings rate for the next five years if you borrow now. "She found one figure and another group was asked to find the low figure, they found that. We put the two together and worked out our forecast for the next five years." That approach was a deliberate business policy, so the two teams worked independently, the Energex spokesman said. Energex rejects allegations it manipulated the borrowings expenses in order to argue for a high power prices on several grounds, the spokesman said. "The figures that would be included in the current proposal are based on 'now timeframes', not on figures from a year-and-a-half ago," he said.

The spokesman said the money market changed daily. "Data gathered a year and half ago is irrelevant to what it is now and it will change between now and when the report comes out in the middle of next year." "She hasn't worked for us effectively since late last year, when she took leave." Ms Wilson is reportedly going to report her concerns about borrowings manipulation to the Australian Energy Regulator. The Energex spokesman said it had launched an internal inquiry into legal implications of her comments.

Energy Minister Mark McArdle told ABC Radio this morning the Australian Energy Regulator would soon examine Energex's submission for the next series of price increases over the next five years. The Australian Energy Regulator said it would examine Energex's submission - which was to receive soon - in great detail. A spokesman said the AER was aware of the allegations raised by Ms Wilson.