Legislators from both the pan-democrat and pro-government camps have called for lower electricity tariffs.
They say people expect a speedy answer to questions surrounding the future of Hong Kong's two power providers after their current agreement expires in about 12 months.
In a Legislative Council debate yesterday on the motion of thanks for the policy address, pan-democratic legislators said they would support a government plan to regulate the operations of CLP Power and Hongkong Electric.
Sin Chung-kai, vice-chairman of the Democratic Party, said his party believed legislation was necessary.
The Liberal Party said legislation should be used only as a last resort if government negotiations with the two companies failed.
'If, at the last moment, public interest is at stake because there is a risk of power failure, then legislation is necessary,' Liberal Party chairman James Tien Pei-chun said. But he said it was better to allow room for negotiations at this stage.