Robert Meggs likes to keep a close eye on how much electricity his household uses.
It's one of the main reasons he switched to a smaller retailer some time ago as he searched for a better deal.
"We don't have town water, no sewer and no gas," Mr Meggs, who lives near Kulnura on the New South Wales Central Coast, said.
"We rely on electricity to run the water pump that supplies the water around the house and for lighting and for cooking as well.
"So, it's very important to us."
But not long after the new service started he received news that left him stunned – his prices were set to more than double from July.
Thousands of consumers have been getting similarly alarming notices from their power providers amid predictions of UK-style energy crisis poised to engulf Australia.
And experts say millions more are soon likely to be affected.
'Panic is starting to set in'
One Big Switch campaign director Joel Gibson said demand for the consumer advocacy group's services and advice had rocketed.
"I think panic is just starting to set in," Mr Gibson said.
"This is now wall-to-wall on every news bulletin across the country in the past two days.
Mr Gibson said the soaring cost of wholesale electricity was wreaking havoc in the retail electricity market.
Prices jumped more than 140 per cent in the 12 months to the end of March and Mr Gibson noted that gas prices had shot up even more alarmingly.
Driving much of the upheaval has been a spike in prices for coal and gas, which account for much of the electricity generated in the national electricity market.
As a consequence, he said many retailers were at risk of going out of business.
In the meantime, he said providers were rapidly withdrawing competitive offers from the market and seeking to pass on price rises of unprecedented size.
"I think there's real cause for concern because we've never seen anything like this before," he said.
"We've never seen price hikes from multiple retailers of over 100 per cent, which is what we've seen in the past couple of weeks.
"We've never seen wholesale gas prices like they are at the moment – the regulator has actually had to put a cap on wholesale gas prices to stop them careering out of control.
It's also believed that many retailers are refusing to sign up new customers amid fears they will be exposed to mounting losses if wholesale electricity costs rise higher still.
Customers unable to find a retailer are forced to buy their power from so-called suppliers of last resort, which are typically large incumbent providers such as Origin or AGL.
Australia in 'perfect storm'
The assessment comes after new Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers expressed alarm at the state of the energy market in Australia.
Separately, Victoria's Essential Services Commission released figures showing there were more than 3500 households whose services were cut in February for not paying their bills.
Lobby group Consumer Action leapt on the figures to call for retailers to "do more to help families and people who fall into difficulty paying" their invoices.
Mr Chalmers said Australia was paying a price — at least partly — for almost a decade of energy policy uncertainty under the previous Coalition government.
"On energy in particular, this is an incredibly challenging set of circumstances, particularly for Australian industry, when you consider this spike in gas prices, which goes hand-in-hand with a spike in the price of liquid fuels and a spike in the price of electricity as well," Mr Chalmers said.
Mr Gibson urged consumers to shop around while there were still options amid what he said was likely to be an extreme price hike season.
Consumers must be quick
Mr Gibson noted that 12-month fixed-rate deals were disappearing from the market as retailers sought to limit their exposure to soaring wholesale costs, meaning customers had to act quickly.
"We've been warning for months this was going to happen," he said.
"Not even we expected it would be this bad.
He said his organisation had been advising people, if they could, to switch to a really good fixed-rate plan for 12 months.
"Now, unfortunately they're disappearing by the day," Mr Gibson said.
"The single most important thing for people to know is that they must not ignore that price hike letter and they must be prepared to move and shop around.
Mr Meggs said he had switched to another retailer after his previous supplier flagged price increases of up to 130 per cent.
Take the politics out: users
The 60-year-old said the market had become noticeably more difficult for consumers and he would still end up paying more for his electricity.
Mr Meggs said while he would be able to absorb the cost increase, he acknowledged it would be a heavier burden for many other households.
He hoped the politics could be taken out of the equation after more than a decade in which energy policy had been mired in fierce partisan debate.
"I'm guess I'm hoping that'll change and people will be a bit more fair and realistic about it."
