A whistleblower's allegation that Queensland-owned power company Energex examined whether to artificially inflate power prices has sparked a federal inquiry.

The Greens successfully won enough support on Thursday to launch a Senate committee inquiry into whether electricity companies provided misleading data to the Australian Energy Regulator in setting prices.

"With a whistleblower coming out in Queensland with claims that Energex manipulated data to hike up Queenslanders' electricity bills, and with similar examples across other states, we need to get to the bottom of why our energy system isn't serving households or the environment," Greens Leader Christine Milne said.

"Poles and wires make up half the cost of electricity bills and have been by far the biggest cause of rising power bills over the past five years," she said.

"This inquiry will uncover whether this infrastructure was really needed or whether the system is being used by electricity companies as a money spinner."

Greens Queensland Senator Larissa Waters said with the state's public infrastructure earmarked for sale "the Greens will be looking to find out whether Energex has been given the go ahead to fatten up the pig before the slaughter of privatisation".

Energex treasury analyst Cally Wilson resigned last week and alleged data was manipulated to reach a revenue target set by the company last year.

She claimed that some her superiors told her to falsify numbers to drive up household power prices.

Energex declined to comment, but Energy Minister Mark McArdle said he had in August asked the independent Queensland Competition Authority to review the 2015-2020 revenue proposals that Energex and Ergon have made to the Australian Energy Regulator.

"I did this to ensure the applications were reasonable and would offer the fairest electricity prices possible for Queenslanders," he said.

"The AER will make a determination based on its assessment of the Energex submission."

Solar Citizens Campaigns Director Claire O'Rourke said Australians deserved to know why electricity prices had soared, 50 per cent in three years.

"Australians have been kept in the dark on the reasons they've experienced bill shock as electricity prices have risen over the past five years," Ms O'Rourke said.

"Renewable energy has been demonised as the cause but the inquiry will investigate whether the real culprit is the extensive "gold plating" of electricity infrastructure and the greed of the major power companies."