Consumers may have to pay an extra £7.50 a year for their electricity because of underinvestment in the power grid system, a committee of MPs said yesterday.

The Commons trade and industry committee said Ofgem, the industry regulator, was partly to blame for the £1.5 billion shortfall.

Martin O’Neill, chairman of the committee, said: "The biggest problem in this country is that the public doesn’t realise that the golden days of power cost reductions are over and there are going to be increases to fund the new power agenda."