If Canberrans are suffering what must it be like for South Australian battlers grappling with much lower average incomes and the highest electricity prices in the world?

St Vincent de Paul's tariff tracking project has found that since last July ACT families are now paying an extra $320 to $350 a year for electricity and an extra $255 a year for gas.

That's a particularly onerous burden for those Canberrans working in the lower paid hospitality, retail and services sectors.

Given it has come on top of a significant increase in residential rates charges over the past two or three years it is no wonder many local families are starting to wonder just how they will get by at a time of record low wages growth.

While it is possible to achieve short term energy savings by shopping around for the best available plan this is a less effective strategy here than in other states.

Canberra's residential energy market is essentially a duopoly with only ActewAGL and Origin Energy providing services to domestic customers.

While solar installations, which can now be coupled to batteries allowing the stored electricity to be used at night, have proved cost effective for those with the space and the means, they are not an option for renters or people living in apartments.

The rapid takeup of such installations is in itself a reflection of growing concerns about power pricing and the security of power supply.

This is why Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has allowed himself to be diverted from such issues as the same sex marriage postal ballot, the citizenship status of members of his front and back benchers, phone calls with Donald Trump and the like to talk about extending the life of the Liddell coal-powered fire station.

He is correctly of the view that unless his government can demonstrate an ability to keep the lights on across south eastern Australia for the forseeable future it will be hammered at the ballot box.

Hopefully this reflects an understanding that energy, wages growth, employment security and the rising cost of living are the real issues exercising the minds of voters.

That said, the speed with which a crisis demanding such dramatic responses as the 11th-hour bid to resurrect an industrial dinosaur and the major spend represented by Snowy Mark 2.0 emerged begs the question of why nobody saw it coming.

Our resources boom ran for decades. In a well managed economy it should have provided the funds to future proof energy and other infrastructure for a generation to come.

Instead we blew it on tax cuts and middle class welfare. The seeds of the current energy crisis were planted decades ago, and won't be fixed by propping up existing power stations for a few more years.