When it rains it pours - just as the credit crunch is taking hold by making consumer credit dearer, energy prices are set to make things even worse in the new year.

In an easily overlooked announcement, British Gas this week announced it was raising the price of its "Market Tracker" gas and electricity tariff for the first time since the tariff was introduced last July.

Now, as the name suggests, the Market Tracker tariff bases itself on the underlying price of gas and electricity - the wholesale price at which utility companies buy gas and electricity in bulk. This makes it a bellweather for consimer energy prices as a whole.

In the same way that tracker mortgages are linked to Bank of England rates, the British Gas Market Tracker will follow changes in the wholesale gas and electricity markets more closely than the traditional energy bill, where price adjustments are smoothed over a period of time to protect customers from volatile commodity movements, the comapny said in a statement.

In other words - if wholesales energy prices change significantly, then the Market Tracker price is the first to reflect these changes.

So consumers need to sit up and take notice: The gas price has gone up by 13%, while the electricity price has increased by an even higher 17%. Given the logic of this tariff, this increase mens that soon all suppliers will raise their own prices by a similar margin.

Brace yourself for the end of reasonably priced gas and electricity in the next two months.

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