The Federal Government could ignore the Finkel review and work on its own plan to bring down electricity prices.

Reports say Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is preparing to argue a new policy will lower electricity bills more than a Clean Energy Target (CET) – the central recommendation in Australia's chief scientist Alan Finkel’s recent review.

Rumours are circulating about plans to force retailers to guarantee a certain amount of power be available on demand to avoid outages.

The plan is likely to appeal to Coalition backbenchers who favour coal-fired power and opposed green targets.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott recently described the CET as a “tax on coal”.

The federal cabinet is also looking at imposing a generator reliability obligation, which requires three years' notice of closing a power station.