WA households have suffered some of the country’s steepest price rises for electricity over the past decade, according to research that will be used to push for “a mature debate” of the proposed $11 billion privatisation of Western Power.

The research was commissioned from EY by Australia’s leading infrastructure think-tank, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, which argues WA power users have nothing to fear from the partial sell-off.

“What WA taxpayers should be scared of is the outlook for the State without the sale,” IPA chief executive Brendan Lyon said.

The WA Government’s privatisation of Western Power and its South West electricity grid is opposed by the State’s Labor Opposition and unions, which claim it will result in higher electricity prices and reduced service levels for consumers.

However, EY’s research shows that the real prices charged by government-owned electricity networks in WA, Queensland and NSW have risen at a much faster rate than they have for privatised “poles and wires” businesses in Victoria and South Australia, contributing to sharp rises in retail prices.

In WA’s case, EY said, per-customer transmission and distribution charges, in real terms, or excluding inflation, had increased 97 per cent since 2007-08, behind only Queensland.

Also, the firm, which will be competing for advisory work on the Western Power sale, found that service levels in Victoria and SA “appear” to have improved under private ownership, rather than declined.

The research updates a 2014 analysis undertaken by EY for the NSW Treasury that was seen as influential in the State’s Coalition Government pushing through its own, near-completed power privatisation.

“There is a very obvious and clear statistical set of data that shows prices will be better if they (networks) are privately owned,” Mr Lyon said.

“And there is a very clear economic and fiscal case for this transaction to happen.”

The sale is looming as a key battleground for the March State election.

The Government’s plan would see 51 per cent of Western Power floated to pay down debt and fund new infrastructure.

Mr Lyon said the EY research was aimed at stimulating “sensible and real-world” debate of the privatisation in the context of WA’s gaping budgetary problems.

“Both (Opposition Leader) Mark McGowan and Premier (Colin Barnett) need to be able to outline how it is they are going to to deal with these problems in the next term of government,” he said.

“WA has a very limited set of choices. It has some very choppy fiscal and economic waters to navigate and the last thing it needs to do is rule out the last only real option it’s got to recapitalise its Budget and move on.”

Mr Lyon drew parallels with Queensland, where there were “a lot of discussions, a lot of media releases about authorities being set up but no real money to deliver the multibillion-dollar projects the authorities have been formed to do”.

“It’s a cautionary tale for every opposition in the country,” he said.

“You need to be trying to keep your options open, within the parameters of your philosophical view.”