Australia's energy minister urged Sydney residents to turn off their lights at night to prevent blackouts, Reuters reported.

The country's energy market operator on Wednesday suspended the spot market for electricity in an unprecedented move to secure power supplies, the latest decisive step to address the energy crisis that began in May.

Efforts were focused on restoring coal-fired generators, said Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, urging households in New South Wales to save as much electricity as possible without sacrificing important things like 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. he said.

Australia's largest power producer, AGL Energy, said Thursday that one of the three outage units at its Bayswater coal-fired power plant in New South Wales will return to operation Thursday and another on Saturday. "We're continuing to work cooperatively with the Australian Energy Market Operator to help ensure continuity of supply," an AGL spokesperson said.