The head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said there had been a 25 per cent increase for the median residential household connected to the national electricity market.

For small businesses, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb told a parliamentary committee the increase was more like $1500.

Responding to a question about price-gouging in the resources sector during an economics committee hearing, Cass-Gottlieb said there were several factors driving up energy costs.

She pointed to the war in Ukraine, unexplained generator outages, as well as climate change-induced flooding affecting coal mines and coal-fired generators as factors causing price increases.

Broadly, Cass-Gottlieb said the steep price hikes were explainable and not necessarily indicative of anti-competitive behaviour.

However, she said the ACCC was monitoring both gas and electricity operators carefully and was reporting back to the treasurer every six months.

Consumers could be hit with even higher bills in the next 12 months, with the head of major energy company Alinta Energy warning retail electricity prices could lift by more than 35 per cent next year.

But the Labor government says it will bring down energy prices over time and has stuck by its election commitment to lower electricity bills by $275 by 2025.

Liberal MP and economics committee deputy chair Garth Hamilton said households were struggling with cost of living pressures.

“Households could really use the government’s promised $275 reduction in energy prices,” he said.

“This coming budget must deliver those energy cost reductions.”

Cass-Gottlieb also told the economics committee she was yet to spot any evidence of abnormally high petrol prices in the wake of the reinstated fuel excise tax.

The ACCC was tasked with watching retailers carefully for signs of unnecessarily large price hikes when the halved tax was returned to its full 44.2 cents-a-litre level last month.

The heads of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission will also front the economics committee.

The financial regulators will be grilled about anti-competitive behaviour, corporate greenwashing and the rise of social media “finfluencers”.

The economics committee hearing follows a probe of the Reserve Bank of Australia three weeks ago.

-AAP