Albertans could soon see combined electricity and natural gas bills as high as $1,500 a month due to deregulation, says David Gray, former executive director of the Utilities Consumer Advocate.

Gray is speaking out after quitting his job in frustration three weeks ago.

"You may end up where your gas bill spikes at $1,000 a month the same time as your electricity bill spikes at $500 a month," Gray said.

"So for an average consumer, they could be see a doubling or more of their total utility spend just with the way that these prices are set."

The province's Conservative government started the push towards a deregulated energy market in the mid-1990s. At the time, consumers were told increased competition would drive their energy bills down.

Instead, Gray says, the opposite situation has resulted, creating a volatile energy market that's keeping competitors out and creating some of the highest prices in Canada.

Lacking competition

"It's got some peculiarities that make it very risky and difficult for companies to enter," he said. "And we're likely not going to see any competition arrive, at least in the retail area and probably not in the wholesale area either."

Prices are low right now because of low natural gas prices. But there aren't consumer protections in place to prevent spikes in costs. Earlier this year, the province ended its natural gas rebate program.

Gray said he raised most of these issues with the government on a number of occasions but was told to "keep his mouth shut." He was also never able to speak out publicly.

He quit as head of the Utilities Consumer Advocate on July 24, saying he was fed up with the direction the government was taking.

"At the end of the day, I was so frustrated with the lack of response, lack of concern for the consumer out of the government, that I was driven to speak out."

Gray doubts his successor will be critical of the system, because the advocate's office is not independent and reports to the deputy minister of Service Alberta.

"The Utilities Consumer Advocate office here is totally a creature of government," he said. "It's not like most other jurisdictions and set up to be independent."

Energy minister unavailable

Energy Minister Mel Knight is on vacation and was not available to comment.

But Gray's comments came as no surprise to long-time deregulation critic, Allan Warrack, a University of Alberta economist who was a public utilities minister under former Tory premier Peter Lougheed.

"I have foreseen this for nearly a decade and I'm not surprised this is coming to the fore," he said Tuesday.

Since 2000, Warrack has told the government that electrical deregulation is a free-market ideology that won't work, but he came under attack for speaking out.

"To me, it's been clear that we're headed for a crisis and it looks like it's happening."