Chart watch: Electricity cost stable

Electricity retailers, including the big state-owned enterprises, are pushing ahead with price increases. But are underlying wholesale prices rising? Now that the 2008 water shortgage scare is now well past, and lake storage is holding at more than 100% of average, upward wholesale cost pressure on retail prices is low. It is also clear that demand for electricity is running more than 5% lower in 2009 than the same period in 2008. With demand lower, and supply stable, competition in the retail electricity market does not seem to working to restrain price rises to consumers.