Rising electricity prices another hit to south-west businesses

The Standard understands many are scrambling to broker deals with their energy providers.

Bamstone managing director Michael Steel said he was incredibly worried about the energy crisis.

"I'm concerned that some overseas countries have to turn off and only work three days a week," Mr Steel said.

He said he had spent a lot of money on renewable energy infrastructure for his business.

However, he said it was not enough to get the business through a power outage.

"No amount of renewable energy is going to get you through and that's what people don't realise," Mr Steel said.

"We're doing all we can afford but all that seems to do is take the edge off the power increases.

"We're in a very volatile environment that I don't see settling down for a long time. It's frightening for businesses."

Rafferty's Tavern owner Mark McIlroy said he was expecting a significant increase to his electricity bill.

"It's a big concern, but we've just got to deal with it," Mr McIlroy said.

"It's just another roadblock we've got to get through."

Mr McIlroy said business owners were being hit with price rises right across the board.

However, he said he would not increase prices.

"We've got to do the right thing and just take the hit," Mr McIlroy said. "If our electricity and food costs go up that means they are going up for everyone else as well.

Mr McIlroy said while he was positive about the future of the business, with the bistro seeing record numbers for the June long weekend recently, not everyone would survive.

"Businesses have had a lot of hits and not everyone can keep taking the hits," Mr McIlroy said.

Another south-west business owner, who asked not to be named, said he was lucky he locked in an electricity price several years ago.

The price of his electricity would have tripled in the coming months if he hadn't, he said.

Keppel Prince director Steve Garner said he was concerned about the rising prices, but his business would be able to cover it.

He said that was the silver lining of "not being flat out".

"Otherwise it would be a different story," Mr Garner said.

Member for Wannon Dan Tehan said he was deeply concerned about the country's energy crisis.

"Obviously I'm very concerned," Mr Tehan said.

"Electricity prices had fallen over the nine years of the Coalition government and now - since the 21^st of May - there has been an incredible spike in electricity prices."

He said the newly elected federal government had failed to ensure gas companies had enough supply to keep prices down.

Mr Tehan said he was concerned jobs would go as a result of the government's inaction.

"For businesses we are seeing significant increases in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to their power bills," he said.

"My worry is that over time this is going to cost jobs.

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said the crisis had been driven by and large by unexpected outages in coal fire powered stations because the fleet has been ageing. He said there was a lack of investment in new technology by the previous government.

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