Households in the Mearns are paying hundreds of pounds extra for electricity every year due to a “postcode lottery”, it has emerged.
People in the AB postcode area are paying 2p more per unit of power than consumers in other parts of the country because of regional variations in transmission costs.
And the situation was branded a “national disgrace” as campaigners claimed it was driving people into fuel poverty.
Both the Scottish and UK Governments were urged to step in to end the electricity bills postcode lottery.
Power giant Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) insisted it wanted to scrap the regional price differences but said it was unable to do so because they were set by regulator Ofgem.
Almost 60% of people aged over 60 in rural parts of Scotland were living in fuel poverty, compared with 45% of over-60s in urban areas.
George Thomson of the Grampian Senior Citizens’ Forum said he was outraged at perceived exploitation of older people in rural areas.
He said: “It’s completely unfair to put an extra charge on people because they live in rural areas rather than urban areas.
“You can’t possibly say that if you allow an energy company to increase their prices to someone living in a remote area it’s because it’s costing more money to get there. It’s quite outrageous as far as I’m concerned.
“The energy companies as it is have been exploiting the situation to the hilt. The elderly people obviously, we’re already struggling to pay our bills as it is.
“Any additional payment they have got to make is quite outrageous.”
The 2p surcharge affects households in Aberdeenshire and the Highlands, islands, Moray, and Aberdeen.
Poverty action activist Angus McCormack called on the Scottish Government “to resolve this inequity as a matter of urgency”.
He said: “A 2p reduction in unit costs would have a significant impact on fuel poverty. A consumer using 15,000 units per year would save £300.”
A spokeswoman for SSE said: “Regional pricing affects all energy suppliers and incorporates the additional costs associated with transporting energy to remote areas.
“SSE favours replacing this with one national charge so a customer pays the same price if they live in Benbecula, Bristol or Bradford. We have raised this with the Competition and Markets Authority as one way to simplify customers’ bills.
“We know affordability is customers’ number one concern that’s why we’ve frozen our standard energy prices to at least January 2016.”