LONDON, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The energy price cap in Britain is expected to rise to around 2,800 pounds (about 3,510.67 U.S. dollars) per year in October, the chief executive of the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) warned on Tuesday.

       Due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, conditions on the global gas market have worsened, Jonathan Brearley told the parliament's Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.

       "We're only part-way through the price cap window, but we're expecting a price cap in October in the region of 2,800 pounds," he said.

       "Gas prices are higher and highly volatile. At times they have now reached over 10 times their normal level," Brearley explained.

       He called the current price changes in the gas market "a once-in-a-generation event not seen since the oil crisis in the 1970s."

       Ofgem reviews the cap twice a year, in April and October respectively. The energy price cap currently stands at 1,971 pounds per year, which was 54 percent or 693 pounds higher than the previous cap six months earlier.

       The massive jump in the energy price cap in April has already pushed the country's inflation to a 40-year-high, as the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 9.0 percent in the 12 months to April.

       Earlier this month, the Bank of England expected inflation to peak at "slightly over 10 percent" in the last quarter of this year, due to a possible increase of the energy price cap in October. Britain's inflation rate has far exceeded the central bank's 2 percent target since last winter.