Hundreds of thousands of households face higher power bills after the energy regulator proposed lifting benchmark prices by up to 9% in some regions.

The move prompted the energy minister on Thursday to concede power bills were “too high” and urge users to shop around for the best deal, while the opposition branded the price rise a failure of Labor’s energy policy.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, criticised the energy minister, Chris Bowen, but would not guarantee power prices would be lower if he won the coming election.

“Chris Bowen has been a disaster,” Dutton said. “There should be a price to pay for that. Frankly today, if the prime minister doesn’t sack Chris Bowen, I don’t know when he would sack him, because he deserves to lose his job over forcing up the electricity prices of Australians yet again.”

Dutton also declined to say whether he would back a further extension of $300 rebates for household energy bills, which the Labor government was expected to outline in its federal budget later this month.

The Australian Energy Regulator, which sets default prices in the non-Victorian states, said both higher wholesale market and network costs were contributing to the rise.

Average wholesale market spot prices increased across 2024, driven by high demand, coal generator and network outages, and low solar and wind output that caused “high price events” in the relevant states.

“We’ve seen cost pressures across nearly every component of the default market offer,” the AER chair, Clare Savage, said.

The regulator was expected to finalise the offer in May.

The main factors influencing the proposed price change for residential customers in Victoria were higher electricity network costs, which were partially offset by lower wholesale and environmental costs.

Energy regulators kept default offers fairly stable last financial year, in a reprieve after sharp increases in the years prior as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed up fossil fuel prices.

The Australian Council of Social Service said renters and people on income support or living with a disability or chronic medical condition were finding it particularly difficult to pay their energy bills.
```