On June 1, the company that has been trying to crack the market with innovative energy plans, will hike its prices (cents per kilowatt hour) by 100 per cent.

It said the wholesale prices for electricity in Queensland were currently 600 per cent higher than this point last year.

“We wanted to take the time to say thank you for supporting LPE. However, at this time we need to say goodbye as LPE is no longer competitive servicing the Ergon region (regional Queensland),” the company told its customers.

“Within the next 24 hours we encourage you to seek an alternative supplier and we strongly recommend Ergon,” the company told its customers.

“Rather than placing additional financial pressure on you, our customer, through further costs, we have made the difficult decision to stop servicing customers in the Ergon region. Our electricity per kilowatt hour charge will need to be materially higher than what Ergon can offer you.

“As a local business, we understand the financial pressures families are currently facing and we did not want to have to materially increase our prices which would have added to this stress.”

The ASX-listed LPE has halted trading in its shares pending an announcement. It said it would continue to provide solar and strata services.

It’s not alone. The cost of electricity is expected to skyrocket over the next few months as retailers adjust to the staggering cost of coal and gas. Thermal coal, which usually sells well below $US100 a tonne is currently selling on the global market at $US440 a tonne.

It’s another impact from the Russia-Ukraine war and China’s trade bans.

LPE also said its switchboard was also jammed with customers trying to figure out what to do.