'No way of knowing' cost of power price cap as bill shock continues: Minister

Energy Minister Nick Duigan said power prices remained the lowest in the country, and urged the opposition to "pick up the phone" to their counterparts in Canberra to find a fix to rising interest rates.

Peter Miller, a pensioner, said he and his wife had spent months making sacrifices to ensure they could keep the lights on after receiving a shocking power bill.

"We're probably a little bit more fortunate than other pensioners," Mr Miller said.

"But what has blown a hole in our budget is the hydro (power) bill. We used to put $50 a fortnight away.

"The quarterly statement would usually be in credit, but the last one was $350. That's not counting what we put aside to pay the bill. That's come out of our budget. We've had to cut back on certain other things."

This ranged from paying car registration in six-monthly instalments to ease upfront costs to scouring supermarket catalogues to shop for groceries on special.

Mr Miller said he and others were "just baffled" by rising power prices as Tasmania had a readily-available supply of cheap power in the form of hydroelectricity.

Labor Pembroke MLC Luke Edmunds said a survey of his constituents showed the majority were trying to find any way they could to cut costs.

Although these were residents of Hobart's Eastern Shore, Mr Edmunds said the same pain was being felt across Tasmania.

"People are struggling, people are not managing their bills easily. People are getting pounded by the cost of living across the board," he said.

"The Tasmanian Government does have one lever at its disposal and that's to cap power prices. It's not a small lever either.

"That's a lot of money that can go back into Tasmanians pockets at a time when they've just gotten through Christmas and school's about to go back."

He claimed if power prices were capped in July 2022 when the Tasmanian Labor Party first proposed the policy, Tasmanians would be $500 per year better off.

At an announcement for the expanded Energy Saver Loan Scheme - which now covers electric vehicle charging infrastructure - Energy Minister Nick Duigan said Labor's promises would not amount to much.

"One thing I would say about power prices is be very, very careful," he said.

"Labor have promised this before, they promised to do it 10 years ago, and they didn't do it.

"They didn't do it then and they won't do it now because there is no way of knowing what a policy like this would cost."

Mr Duigan said the loan scheme was a better investment than capping power prices, and the government had implemented "the most generous concessions" in the country.

He said power prices remained the lowest nationwide, and the state Labor party should "pick up the phone" and urge their counterparts in the federal government to intervene.

"What I'd ask Labor to do is pick up the phone and speak to their federal friends in Canberra," Mr Duigan said.

"We have seen so many interest rate hikes in the last 20 months.

"This is where the real pain is hitting Tasmanians. This is where the real hurt is, in those areas of federal control."