The Australian Energy Regulator is warning power producers against withdrawing plants from the market, and to wait until they are directed to run them as the unprecedented introduction of wholesale price controls across four states ramped up the risk of blackouts.

The intervention by AER chairwoman Clare Savage reflects concern that generators are opting for a potentially more lucrative compensation system for running their plants than the one that is intended to apply after the introduction of $300-a-megawatt-hour cap prices in the National Electricity Market.