Looks like price increase will benefit AGL ... make hay while...

Looks like price increase will benefit AGL ... make hay while legacy contracts exist for Bayswater & Lidell particularly.

"The AER published its latest default market offer determination on Thursday, which finds higher coal and gas costs will leave consumers paying much more for their electricity.

The default market offer for consumers in New South Wales will increase by between 8.5 and 14.1 per cent, while households in Southeast Queensland will see benchmark electricity prices rise by 11.3 per cent. The average New South Wales consumer will pay between $119 to $227 more in annual electricity costs, while the increase for South-east Queensland and South Australian consumers will be $165 and $124, respectively.

Electricity prices have been driven higher by a surge in the underlying wholesale electricity price, which has increased sharply since the start of the year by a spike in the cost of coal and gas. The AER also pointed to outages at large coal and gas generators – such as the recent outage at AGL’s Loy Yang A power station – as contributing to higher wholesale electricity prices, which have risen by 41.4 per cent in New South Wales, by 49.5 per cent in Queensland, and by 11.8 per cent in South Australia."