The country’s energy market operator suspended the electricity spot market yesterday in an unprecedented move to secure power supplies, its latest drastic step to tackle an energy crisis that began in May.

Efforts were focused on reviving output from coal-fired generators, climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen said today, while urging households in New South Wales to conserve power as much as possible, without sacrificing essentials such as heating.

“We are confident we can avoid blackouts,” Bowen said at a televised media conference in Canberra.

“If you have a choice about when to run certain items, don’t run them from 6pm to 8pm,” he said.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese will host a dinner today with state leaders ahead of a meeting tomorrow – their first formal gathering since the new Labor government was elected in May – and said energy will be on the agenda.

Bowen said the main problem behind the power crunch was unscheduled outages at ageing coal-fired power stations.

“Everybody is working to fix that,” he said.

Australia’s top power producer AGL Energy said today that one of three crippled units at its Bayswater coal-fired plant in New South Wales would be back online today and another by Saturday.

“We’re continuing to work cooperatively with the Australian Energy Market Operator to help ensure continuity of supply,” an AGL spokesman said.