Business customers and homeowners could see price rises of up to 17.5 per cent over the next three years.

The news comes off the back of recommendation from IPART, the New South Wales energy regulator.  The price increase will vary massively by customer, depending on which supplier they are currently with.

A breakdown of the proposed gas price changes over the next 3 years are as follows:

Residential
AGL Energy: 12.4 per cent
Country Energy: 17.5 per cent
Origin Energy: 17 per cent
ActewAGL: 12.3 per cent

Business
AGL Energy: 0 per cent
Country Energy: 16.4 per cent
Origin Energy: 9.3 per cent
ActewAGL: 13.6 per cent

Make It Cheaper says: "These proposed gas price changes have some real highs and lows.  AGL business customer have struck some luck, whilst Country Energy residential customers have caught the sharp end of these rises.

This is really going to make it difficult for customers to truly understand the impact of these price increases."

As ever, we recommend thinking about becoming more efficient and economical the gas you use.  And of course shopping around to see if there are cheaper gas deals out there - remembering that some bundle dual fuel deals through one supplier may not be as good as two seperate suppliers for you gas and electricity."

There are two things we at Make It Cheaper have learnt about the natural gas market in the past few months.  They are:

• Not many businesses are changing suppliers
• There aren't many services to help businesses change suppliers

Very soon, Make It Cheaper will offer this exact service - but in the meantime, we thought it would be useful to sign-post some services which you, the small business owner might find useful.

• Natural Gas - The Natual Choice: a service all about natural gas, including a pretty simple to use price comparison calculator.  This service is only applicable to small businesses and homeowner ins NSW and ACT.
• Dial Before You Dig: Less about switching supplier.  More about making sure you don't break through natural gas pipes when you're doing some serious business or home renovations.

Both seem to be useful services, and well worth getting involved with.