Scottish Power has announced it’s raising gas and electricity prices from the 1 August 2011.

The energy provider Scottish Power has said it will raise gas prices by 19% and electricity prices by 10% from the beginning of August.

The price increases will affect domestic energy users in the UK with customers seeing an average daily price rise of 48p for a dual fuel bill. But how long will it be before business electricity prices and business gas prices start rising again?

Scottish Power has said however, that around 700,000 households are on capped or fixed price deals and therefore will be protected from the price increases. The news followers a previous Scottish Power price rise in November when gas prices rose 2% and electricity prices increased by 8.9%.

The Scottish Power price rises mean it won’t be long before other providers also start to increase their prices.

The retail director of Scottish Power UK, Rayomd Jack, said “Wholesale prices for gas and electricity have increased significantly since the end of last year and continuing unrest in global energy markets means future prices are volatile. We understand times are difficult for many people, and we have done what we can to absorb these additional costs for as long as possible to minimise the impact on our customers”.

He added that customers could save money by being more energy efficient at home. He said “Some of our customers could save an average of £459 per year by making simple changes to the way they pay for their energy, switching to paper-free online billing and selecting one of our new or existing energy products”.

Utility Exchange reported recently that British Gas owner, Centrica, had warned that wholesale prices were around 25% higher than customers were paying and that therefore prices would have to increase. The news was followed by a warning from Scottish & Southern Energy that prices would have to rise.

Scottish Power has introduced a fixed price online deal which it says is one of the cheapest on the energy market.