Energy minister Mick de Brenni said Queensland had been doing the heavy lifting for the entire east coast and the lights would stay on.

“The main thing I want to reassure all Queensland is that the system is operating and we don’t expect there to be widespread outages as we saw some commentators predict yesterday,” he said.

However, those predictions were made by the Australian Energy Market Operator which warned of load shedding before it managed to bring more capacity into the market.

The Australian Energy Regulator also wrote to generators and retailers today warning them the ACCC would investigate any reports of price gouging following claims that some companies were being forced into 12-month contracts on very high prices.

“The market is working as it should and I have full confidence in the market operator,” de Brenni said.

However, his federal counterpart Chris Bowen described it as “imperfect” and detailed how a cycle of events starting in Queensland had caused the crisis.

de Brenni said the State Government’s aim was to detach Queensland from the global energy markets which had forced up the price of coal and gas and it would do that through more renewables and storage.

He said there were four Government-owned electricity generator units that were off line and another four in the private sector.

“There is adequate supply for tonight,” he said.

“We need to continue to invest in renewable energy and storage.

“I have every confidence our generators have enough access to coal reserves and gas reserves so that the lights stay on tonight.”

He said the previous federal government had made a mess of the energy with 20 different policies in nine years.

“They hardly spent a dime in Queensland when it came to new renewable energy and storage,” de Brenni said.

“We have seen this nation fall behind in terms of investment.”

Anthony Albanese has laid the blame for the east coast’s energy crisis firmly at the feet of the previous government, criticising coalition “inaction” on the issue.

As the Australian Energy Market Operator was forced to intervene to require generators to provide power due to supply shortfalls, even if it was not profitable, the prime minister said the current grid was not fit for purpose.

Albanese said the market operator would intervene as much as necessary for the system to function during winter, but the issues had been brewing over a longer period.

“You’ve had a decade of neglect where we have an energy grid that isn’t fit for purpose for the 21st century,” Albanese told reporters in Brisbane.

“What we find is that the consequences of the former government’s failure to put in place an energy policy is being felt right now with problems in the marketplace because that certainty wasn’t available.”

Outages at coal-fired power plants, at the same time as household heating is in high demand, are putting pressure on the electricity system.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen says steps have been taken to avoid any load-shedding or blackouts along the east coast.

A perfect storm of coal-fired power station outages, high demand due to a cold snap, and problems in the global and domestic gas markets, led to fears of blackouts in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

Bowen said regulators had stepped in and were confident major problems could be avoided.

“It has required AEMO (the market operator) to direct generators to bid into the market to provide the energy system with electricity,” he said.

As well, some of the biggest energy users have reduced their demand.

“I do not believe there is a likely outcome at this point that there will be any requirement for load shedding, or indeed, as I said, for blackouts,” Bowen said.

“We will be in for a bumpy period, there is no doubt about that,” he told the Seven Network on Tuesday.

The prime minister said Bowen would continue to work with the market operator to come up with solutions.

“All things are on the table. We’ve said we will have a trigger of the so-called (gas) trigger,” Albanese said.

While there had been high demand for power, the energy minister said people did not have to go without during the cold period.

“Nobody is being asked to turn off anything that they need … certainly nobody should be turning the heating off or anything that’s essential,” he told ABC radio.

With some coal plants still offline, Bowen said he expected the market operator to intervene if required to keep the power running.

“Coal-fired power is really under huge pressure at the moment … and that has led to some of the pressure on the system,” he said.

“This is a cycle of events, some of which are predictable. We know some of the outages that are coming. Some of them are unpredictable, particularly with an ageing fleet.”