The electricity bills of hundreds of thousands of households in Australia’s biggest energy market are set to surge by up to 30% this year, according to the Australian Energy Regulator’s (AER) draft decision on benchmark energy prices. Every new financial year, the regulator updates its ‘default market offer’ (DMO) – a cap on the price energy retailers can charge existing customers. It was a big thing last year when the regulator lifted the DMO by 18.3% thanks to soaring coal and gas prices. And from this July, Aussies are set for more bill shock, with prices set to rise by up to 22% in NSW, South Oz and Queensland, and up to 30% in Victoria. Regulator Clare Savage says things could have been a lot worse – the DMO was set to rise between 40-50% if the federal government hadn’t intervened in the market last year. The AER will announce its final decision in May, but maybe start putting some funds aside now…