Australian Energy Prices May Surge 20% on Capactity Shortage ( June 25, 2001 )

SYDNEY, June 25 Asia Pulse - The deregulation of Australia's power sector may cause electricity prices to surge 20 per cent within months as an unexpected by-product of competition, it was reported today.

The Australian newspaper said the move had forced state energy ministers into an emergency meeting tomorrow (Tuesday).

Wholesale prices have been falling since the mid-1990s because of reforms and privatisation in the former government-owned industry, the paper said.

But it said prices had begun rising recently because of a shortage of generation capacity in Victoria and South Australia.

Energy analyst Alan Moran told the paper there was little option but to pass the increases onto domestic consumers.

State energy ministers will meet in Melbourne tomorrow to try to bring the National Electricity Market (NEM) under political control, the paper said.

NEM is an organisation set up under the electricity industry's national competition policy to facilitate the trading of electricity.

ASIA PULSE

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 26, 2001