The NSW Greens will try to reverse the lifting of price controls in the retail electricity market only weeks after it comes into effect, due to fears the move will inflate household power bills.
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A regulation published on Friday throws open electricity retailing to full competition from July 1 by removing the regulated price currently chosen by about 35 per cent of NSW customers.
The government was forced to introduce the change via regulation after facing the likely blockage of its electricity deregulation bill in the upper house by Labor and the Shooters and Fishers Party.
It means that from Tuesday, the 35 per cent of NSW customers who currently pay a regulated price determined by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) will move to a "transitional" tariff for one year.
The remaining 65 per cent of customers have already taken up offers from electricity retailers.
Energy Minister Anthony Roberts says an agreement between the government and retailers Energy Australia and Origin Energy, who offer the regulated rate, means customers moving to the transitional tariff will pay 1.5 per cent less for electricity compared with the 2013-14 regulated price.
Under the agreement price rises will be restricted to the CPI increase the following year.
The government cites a report by the Australian Energy Market Commission suggesting deregulation could potentially save customers $300 to $400 a year.
On Monday, NSW Greens MP John Kaye accused Mr Roberts of trying to "sneak deregulation through the back door" and that his party would seek to disallow the regulation in the upper house when Parliament resumes in August.
"Bills will rise rapidly after the 12-month transition period," Dr Kaye said.
"The Baird government is determined to abandon households to a complex and confusing electricity market where retailers have been regularly caught misleading customers."
But Mr Roberts said the change would not affect existing customer protection measures such as financial hardship provisions, protections around disconnections and quality of electricity supply, access to rebates and emergency relief measures.
He said IPART would take on a new role "to monitor the level of competition in the retail electricity market and report back to the government each year for the next three years".
Mr Roberts said he was not surprised Dr Kaye opposed the reform because "his extreme socialist ideology is at odds with the concept of a competitive market".
"This government is determined to deliver greater competition, better services and lower prices in the NSW electricity market for the benefit of households and businesses," Mr Roberts said.
