Households and businesses in southeast and coastal areas are set for blackouts from 5pm to 9pm on Tuesday.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has asked generators to supply more electricity, saying it will order them to do so if needed.
"AEMO has not yet estimated the latest time at which they would need to intervene," it said in a statement on Tuesday.
It would be the second consecutive night that AEMO has directed generators to fire up their power plants to maintain supply.
Tranmission company Powerlink's Chief Executive Paul Simshauser says people should "be a bit thoughtful" and reduce their energy use on Tuesday night.
"If you've got your air conditioner on ... just make sure it's not set to blast furnace mode," he told ABC Radio.
Queensland has been facing a supply crunch since Sunday when electricity generators stopped offering to supply power after AEMO capped skyrocketing wholesale electricity prices.
AEMO said supplies are low even though there is "sufficient physical generation capacity" in the state.
Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni says he doesn't need to intervene because AEMO is taking care of the situation.
"This is a system design that is doing its job at the moment, which means power stays on, we've got adequate supply," he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
The minister blamed the electricity crisis on higher demand amid cold weather, high gas prices due to the Ukraine war and maintenance outages at public-owned coal power plants.
Some of those plants will be back generating electricity by Thursday, the minister said, but some will be out of action until next April.
Wholesale electricity prices are set by the highest bidder in Queensland, and 83 per cent of power comes from coal and gas plants.
State-owned generators Stanwell Corporation and CS Energy are shielded from high coal prices as they own their own coal mines.
The government can order its two generators to offer cheaper electricity to the market to keep prices lower.
Mr de Brenni has resisted calls to do so, and recently denied that the two public generators have been price gouging.
The market operator has capped wholesale prices anyway, he said, so his intervention isn't needed.
Queensland household electricity bills are set to rise by at least $43 per month from July, but analysts predict they will rise again before mid-2023 if wholesale prices continue surging to record levels.
Instead of dousing wholesale prices, the state government will wipe $43 from monthly power bills until mid-2023.
Mr de Brenni said investing more in solar and wind farms, and electricity storage, would shield Queenslanders from future blackouts in the longer term.
6°C