1 September 2014
Gas prices an explosive issue for Victorians
Victorians are facing a bigger shock from higher gas prices – just as relief looms from electricity price rises – because they use a lot more gas than households in other states.
Many Victorians use natural gas for home heating, as well as cooking and hot water. The average Victorian household uses about 55 gigajoules of gas a year.
That’s three to five times as much as the average household in South Australia, NSW or Queensland, where heating is less of a problem.
If the wholesale price of gas jumps from the $4 a gigajoule maximum of the past three decades to the $9/GJ rate at which contracts are now being written, and all the other costs stay the same, that’s an extra $5/GJ or $275 a year for the average household.
A larger family home can consume as much as 90 GJs, raising the annual increase to $450.
If the wholesale price goes to $10/GJ, as some predict, that’s an extra $330 for an average household or $540 for a larger family home.
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