“This government must ensure a structure is put in place to guarantee equitable prices and servicing is available for rural customers once the energy companies are privatised,” Mr Laurie said.

“People need to know that problems will be fixed if the power goes out, and their location won’t be disadvantaged.”

The NSW Government is currently considering the sell-off of the retail arm of the state-owned Energy Australia, Country Energy and Integral Energy to private operators.

It is understood that distribution assets such as poles and lines will remain government owned.

State owned electricity generators Macquarie Generation, Delta Energy and Eraring Energy would be leased to private operators.

“The association wants standard electricity contracts made available to all customers in NSW that contain an agreed universal standard of service and a maximum price determined by an independent regulator,” Mr Laurie said.

The association is also calling for assurances that maintenance of equipment will be carried out and development of the networks will continue post the sale.

“If there are only a few customers living on a road in outback NSW, it may not be profitable for a private company to maintain the line – but this has to be guaranteed for the sake of rural customers,” Mr Laurie said.

The NSW Government has guaranteed that retail price caps will remain until 2013.