Meeting for its AGM in Cookstown yesterday, Northern Ireland Manufacturing, which has over 500 members, said that it had "serious concerns" about the process that has caused business customers to see as much as a 40% hike in their power bills in recent weeks.

The most significant of the factors leading to increases in non- domestic energy costs are the Public Service Obligation or PSO -- a levy charged on all units of electricity sold in Northern Ireland that covers legacy costs from the opening of the province's electricity market, and increased distribution costs.

Bryan Gray, chief executive of NIM said: "These rising costs are simply unacceptable. The rise in energy costs is frightening to many NIM members, while the recently implemented sewerage costs are adding to the considerable burden on our members.

These are extremely challenging times, and there is palpable anger amongst our members at the rising costs of doing business."

He said NIM planned to highlight its concerns in a meeting with MLAs and would also be seeking a meeting with the Utility Regulator over the pricing mechanism.

"It's a disgrace that we've been clobbered by these insane price hikes during the worst recession in living memory," said Mr Gray.

The Utility Regulator is today holding a briefing with businesses, electricity suppliers and network operators to discuss how business tariffs are made up.

The regulator has said the main cause of the increases customers have experienced is the ending of a PSO rebate which had applied since January 2009.

Suppliers said they hoped the meeting would provide greater clarity on the costs.

Tomas Murray from ESBIE said: "Although ESBIE had conditioned customers that the PSO rebate was likely to end, we had not foreseen the magnitude of the actual increase in PSO.

For some customers this increase has been further compounded by changes to Use of System charges. We look forward to hearing the Regulator's view at the tariff briefing meeting."

Tom Gillen, chief operating officer of Energia also confirmed it will be attending, saying: "We are hoping to see a more meaningful move towards transparency on all customer costs."

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