EDF Energy today announced a hike in energy bills for British customers when it raised its gas prices by 12.9 per cent and electricity by 7.9 per cent.

EDF's five million customers will begin paying the new tariffs from January 18 that will add £1.92 per week to the average combined bill for both gas and electricity.

Allan Asher, chief Executive of Energywatch, the industry watchdog, criticised the increase. “That consumers have been told to expect more price rises does not make this news any easier to swallow.

“All suppliers are pointing to soaring wholesale costs. And while the price has shot up recently consumers will be no more convinced that double digit price rises are justified just because its six suppliers pleading poverty rather than one.

“The underlying causes of spiralling consumer prices are a wholesale market that punishes British consumers and a supply market that seems unconstrained from passing these costs on to the consumers."

Earlier this month, npower, Britain’s fourth-largest power supplier, drew criticism when it raised customer’s bills by 17 per cent for gas and 13 per cent for electricity.

Npower said that it had been forced to lift the cost of average household bills for dual-fuel customers from £908 to £1,047 because the cost of buying energy on the wholesale markets had “increased dramatically”.

British Gas is expected to follow Npower and EDF in hiking standard energy prices later this week, according to industry insiders.

Mark Todd, director at comparison firm energyhelpline.com, believes customers won’t have long to wait for an announcement from British Gas: “With its results being announced on February 21, British Gas is likely to be the next supplier to increase domestic prices,” Todd predicted.

Todd suggests a rise of at least 15 per cent on Thursday putting average bills back above the £1,000 mark. However, this hike will still make it cheaper than the standard Npower tariff in most regions.

There are already rumours that British Gas's standard tariff is no longer being sold by door to door sales staff as the tariff that will become redundant in a few days, although this is denied by the supplier.

British Gas’s Click Energy 4, currently one of the cheapest tariffs on the market, is likely to be withdrawn, and replaced with Click Energy 5. “In introducing a more expensive online tariff, British Gas will lose its place at the top of the switching tables, putting it in the top four, rather than the top three, across the country,” said Todd.

Todd says this is likely to occur sometime between January 18 – 31.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), has already said it will be the last to put up prices, as it’s done in the past, so the next most likely hike after British Gas is ScottishPower.

EDF Energy has blamed its price rises on the rising price of wholesale power, mirroring Npower. It said today that wholesale energy prices have doubled in the past year and distribution costs of transporting and metering energy have also risen.

Eva Eisenschimmel, chief operating officer in the customers branch at EDF Energy said: “We regret any decision to raise our prices. Despite soaring wholesale energy prices, higher distribution costs and increased environmental obligations, we have been able to substantially limit the impact on our customers.”

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