Dubbo MP and Deputy Premier Troy Grant continued to defend the plan yesterday, saying the government's plan is about making the electricity network more efficient and generating revenue to put back into the state's infrastructure.

"The reason we are pursuing this policy agenda is it liquidates 49 per cent of a public asset, across the public asset, to create efficiencies in that asset and using that revenue, which is 20 billion, to invest in new public assets," he said.

But Labor candidate Stephen Lawrence called on the Deputy Premier to be more upfront about what the policy will mean for regional NSW.

He said the complete sale of energy provider Transgrid, which services large areas of NSW, would have an impact in the country.

"Claiming falsely that only 49 per cent of the non-Essential Energy businesses are to be privatised and suggesting only 'city assets' are being sold off is blatantly misleading. It falsely suggests the government will retain majority ownership of the assets and that country NSW will be somehow untouched by this privatisation and that is simply not correct," Mr Lawrence said.

Leading academic, and Australian Research Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow from Queensland University, Professor John Quiggin, has long been against the privatisation of state energy assets.

In a report published yesterday, Professor Quiggin wrote that the planned sale would "contribute $1-2 billion annually to the budget deficit" and "electricity privatisation is unlikely to reduce prices faced by consumers".

Consumers are already struggling.

In January, the National Council of Social Services told Fairfax Media 33,000 households had their electricity disconnected, due to non-payment, in 2013/14.

The Daily Liberal couldn't establish how many of those households were located in Dubbo, but a spokesperson for Essential Energy, which services more than 800,000 customers across regional NSW, said they "completed 13,438 disconnections from the network for non-payment" in the same period.

Lieutenant Mark Townsend, from the Dubbo branch of the Salvation Army, said most days, they had "more people requiring assistance [with bills] than we have appointments available".

But Mr Grant continues to defend the plan, saying that it will free up $6 billion in funding for regional NSW and $1 billion in funding for the state's water.

"This is a win-win. Ultimately we end up with more public assets that are efficient, lower electricity prices, which everyone wants and needs, and the infrastructure that would normally take decades to realise," he said.