Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill have clashed during a bizarre press conference that descended into a slanging match over energy policy.

The Federal Government has been relentlessly attacking South Australia's approach to energy and its over-reliance on renewable sources, since last year's state-wide black out.

Mr Weatherill this week announced a half-a-billion dollar plan to shore up the state's fragile power supply, which was dismissed as a "$550 million admission of failure" by Mr Frydenberg, who accused the state of trying to "go it alone".

In Adelaide to launch a federally funded "virtual power plant", Mr Frydenberg found himself seated awkwardly between Mr Weatherill and South Australia's Treasurer, Tom Koutsantonis, and then conducting a joint press conference with the Premier.

Mr Frydenberg laughed when asked if "it was all a bit awkward", but Mr Weatherill told reporters "it's about to be" before laying into the Federal Government.

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The Premier said it was "galling" to be standing beside Mr Frydenberg after he and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had spent the past six months "bagging South Australia at every step of the way".

"It's a disgrace the way in which your Government has treated our state," he said.

"It is the most anti-South Australian Commonwealth government in living history."

Maintaining a straight face as Mr Weatherill unloaded, Mr Frydenberg accused a "desperate" Premier of "crash tackling" his announcement.

Mr Frydenberg later described Mr Weatherill's actions as "unbecoming, childish and unacceptable".

"We are interested in serious solutions and not silly stunts," he told 7.30.

"What we saw from the Premier today, unfortunately, was the hijacking of an important announcement about the Commonwealth's contribution to battery storage in order for him to score some cheap political points."

The 20-minute press conference, which was broadcast live on ABC TV, highlighted the fractious relationship between South Australia and the Commonwealth.

South Australia this week announced plans to build a new gas-fired power plant and develop Australia's largest battery to help secure its energy supplies.

The 250-megawatt gas-fired plant would provide power grid stability and service emergency power needs.

The state has been plagued by power loss and energy shortages over the past six months.

Rolling blackouts were ordered last month as Adelaide sweltered through a heatwave.

Late last year, the failure of the South Australian-Victorian interconnector left 200,000 homes without power.

It prompted the state's electricity distributor to investigate four options for a new interconnector — a structure that allows electricity to flow between networks — to the eastern states.

On Lateline, Mr Turnbull did not rule out paying for it.

"There's a case being made for it," he said.

"It's infrastructure that's being looked at and that the regulators are examining at the moment. I'm not going to prejudice that."

Last week, billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk said he could solve South Australia's energy woes.

The boss of Tesla and Space X claimed his company could install a battery farm capable of "fixing" the system within 100 days, or else do it for free.