Malcolm Turnbull has appealed to the Labor states and their federal colleagues to sit down with him and discuss ways of implementing his new energy policy.

The prime ministerial appeal came as South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill continued to resist accepting the national energy guarantee.

Senior opposition figures in Canberra have signalled Labor is open to supporting an acceptable form of the NEG, likening it to an emissions intensity scheme and carbon trading.

Publicly, their leader Bill Shorten continues to criticise the plan, accusing the government of giving away Australia's renewable energy industry in return for a "lousy" 50 cents-a-week saving on household power bills.

Mr Turnbull, who visited an outer-Melbourne water treatment and chemical distribution business which uses as much power as the city of Geelong, said the 20-25 per cent reduction in wholesale electricity prices NEG would give manufacturers and their workers greater security.

"It will mean millions of dollars a year in savings to this business," he told reporters on Friday.

Mr Turnbull insisted the government's plan was not something he and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg wrote, but a proposal put to the government by experts in the field.

Directly appealing to Labor, the prime minister said: "Let's sit down and go through the detail and make sure we implement it."

Mr Weatherill is yet to get on board despite the plan winning backing from the electricity sector and business.

"It's curious that the Commonwealth would design a system that they expect the states to enact and then present it as a fait accompli," he said.

Asked whether he would oppose the policy if it's adopted by federal Labor, Mr Weatherill said, "Our federal colleagues will presumably maintain the position they've always maintained".

That was a belief in strong renewable energy targets and incentives for renewable energy, he said.