John Thwaites, who was deputy to former premier Steve Bracks in 2002 when the government deregulated the retail electricity market, told Fairfax Media the reform had failed to deliver lower prices for households.

"Clearly, that part of the policy has not worked," Mr Thwaites said. "Other areas of costs have been kept down, but the retail component has increased very substantially."

Mr Thwaites, chairman of the Equity and Climate Change Program with the Brotherhood of St Laurence, made the comments after a report commissioned by the Brotherhood dissected the components of Victorian electricity bills.

The report found the part of the average Victorian's electricity bills that is paid to the retailer has more than tripled since 2008. Between $371 and $471 would be paid for so-called "retail charges" on an average bill in 2014 compared to a range of $86 to $183 in 2008.

It says that "network charges" – which are the fixed costs of poles and wires in the network – are a smaller part of the electricity bill in Victoria than in any other state.

These charges have been largely blamed for the high price in NSW, where the former government was criticised for allowing the "gold plating" of the network. Yet, the report shows tariffs in Victoria only marginally below NSW despite the relatively low network charges.

Mr Thwaites called on the government to review the retail energy market urgently to discover how and why retail charges remained stubbornly high.

He said that in developing the policy to deregulate energy retailers "everyone expected that there would be more competition and therefore a reduction in bills".

"The figures show that that hasn't happened."

Mr Thwaites said it was not clear how to proceed with reform, and the Brotherhood's primary recommendation from the report is for the government to commission a review to understand the market better.

On the one hand, consumers needed a much better understanding of the market and products to be able to make the right choices. On the other hand, over-simplifying the kind of products retailers could offer might stop new ideas from making it to market.

The report finds that, unlike with competition among banks, it is relatively easy for new retailers to crack into the market, relatively easy for consumers to switch between electricity companies and relatively easy to find a better deal.

Nevertheless, consumers are not doing well. They are complaining to the Ombudsman in record numbers, electricity disconnections are at an all-time high and customer satisfaction is low.

The report cites a number of examples of new retailers entering the market, only to be bought up by larger retailers.

"A conclusion from this is that the Victorian electricity retail market does not seem to be delivering to consumers what they want, and that it seems to be offering poor value for money relative to what it has in the past and relative to retailing elsewhere in the National Electricity Market. The Victorian market has had time to evolve: households have been able to choose their suppliers for 13 years, and six years ago all price controls were lifted. Would decision-makers have set the market on its current course if they were able to predict where things seem to have got to now?"

The report's author, Bruce Mountain of consultancy group CME, said that two barriers could stop reform.

First, consumers would need to overcome the cynicism they may have toward the market so that they engage with potential new retailers.

Second, politicians would need to overcome their pride and accept that the reforms of the past have failed.

"It's hard to pursue something and then to admit that the thing you have been pursuing has not succeeded," he said.