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.”