Victorians warned more energy price pain is ahead

Victorians are being warned to brace for a second year of energy price hikes.

St Vincent De Paul energy specialist Gavin Dufty says households should expect a rise of 20 to 40 per cent this year.

Energy Australia has already announced its Victorian residential gas customers on variable market contracts will see their bills increase by an average of 26.7 per cent from February, while Origin and AGL have also flagged that their gas rates will increase by more than 20 per cent next month.

And Mr Dufty says the federal government’s gas intervention won’t help ease the pain.

“The intervention in the gas market upstream that the feds are doing is more about getting price caps or stability for the big commercial and industrial customers that use it a lot, and also for the electricity generation market to bring down prices there,” he said.

“It won’t help our gas bills right now because anybody who is done contracting would have contracted pre-intervention.”

Press PLAY below to hear what Victorians should expect