An energy expert says there has been a “policy paralysis” at a national level as Queensland faces another night of power shortages.

Yesterday, the state avoided widespread blackouts but there are fears the state could be hit with outages tonight and in the coming days.

Households are again being urged to limit their use of some appliances, in a bid to conserve energy.

Climate Council energy expert Andrew Stock explained the shortfall on 4BC Drive.

“It is complex but at the nub of it, Queensland is certainly well-endowed with energy, copal, gas solar and wind, unfortunately it has had too many eggs in the coal and gas basket,” he told Scott Emerson.

“When it all goes to hell in a hand basket overseas pushes power prices up locally because of the impact on gas and coal prices flowing through from overseas to Australia.

“Added to that, there are an enormous number of coal plants down across the eastern seaboard now.

“I counted them up, 13 of them are down currently, over 5000 megawatts, and half of that is in Queensland.”

He questioned why so many power plants were out for scheduled maintenance heading in to winter and cool temperatures.

He hit out at the decade-long “policy paralysis” and warned against a continued reliance on coal.

There needs to be plan to transition, he said.

“One of the things you can be absolutely sure about, is if we don’t do that, we continue to rely on these coal stations that do have an increasing habit of falling over unfortunately.

“They are not base load anymore … if we continue to think that they are going to provide the reliable underpinning of the grid, we are really building a house increasingly on sand for the future and we can’t do that.”

Press PLAY below to hear more of his explanation of the complex energy crisis

Strain to continue for state’s power grid amid expected electricity shortfalls