South Australia will this weekend overtake Denmark with the highest electricity prices in the world.
From July 1, the country’s largest energy retailers, AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin Energy will increase their prices.
EnergyAustralia announced the largest increase in power bills with residential customers seeing a 19.9 per cent rise.
AGL customers will see an average increase of 18 per cent, and 16.1 per cent for Origin customers.
Utilities expert and director of Carbon and Energy Markets Bruce Mountain has predicted the increases will see South Australia jump ahead of Denmark, which currently has the highest prices in the world.
Mr Mountain prepared the calculations for an interstate government inquiry.
“My estimates are that for a representative customer in SA, they will be paying slightly more than the representative customer in Denmark, which has historically had the highest electricity process in the world after taxes,’’ he told The Advertiser.
Mr Mountain made the prediction based on national and international energy market data, and papers published by the Council of European Energy Regulators and OECD.