Acknowledging the imminent price hike, Chris Bowen says it will take time to implement the government's plan to transition to renewables and shore up the energy grid.
"It will take a while for our policies to work. I think people understand you don't fix 10 years of neglect in 10 days," he told the Nine Network on Thursday.
"We have to build 10,000 kilometres of transmission wires to get our system up and running. You don't do that in six months, you don't do that in a year."
Mr Bowen also criticised the former government for delaying news of a power price hike come July 1 until after the election.
"The old government sat on that prior to the election. It had to be released under the new government, the news that energy bills were going up," he said.
"The old government knew about it but didn't do anything to get the figures out before the election - surprise, surprise."
Mr Bowen also flagged bringing forward the introduction of the capacity mechanism, which will help shore up energy supply, from 2025.
"I would like it to happen earlier than that. I'll be working with the states and territories to try to make that the case. I've been clear about that," he told the ABC.
"This is an important safety net."
Liberal frontbencher Karen Andrews said the working lives of coal-fired power stations needed to be extended as they were an important part of the nation's energy mix.
"Most Australians have have demonstrated a very strong interest in renewables and moving towards a different mix in our energy supply ... but it is going to take time to get there," she told Sky News.
"We've actually got to look at how we are putting in place the things that are needed for the short, medium, and the long term."
The suspension of trading in the national energy market has been eased since Thursday morning after the market operator indicated there would be enough capacity for homes and businesses.
Following a "clear improvement" in energy conditions, the Australian Energy Market Operator said it would begin a staged process that would bring the market back to normal.
The system was destabilised last week, prompting AEMO to take control to stabilise power supplies.
Market operator chief executive Daniel Westerman said there would be a step-by-step approach in lifting the suspension of the market.
He said there had been vast improvement to the market, with about 4000 megawatts of generation being returned to the energy grid after outages.
"We know many generators are working hard and closely with governments to improve the confidence of their fuel supply, to ensure that they are able to operate at their desired level of output," Mr Westerman said.
The market operator expects the system used to schedule energy generation into the grid would be operating without failure.
This was due to a low volume of directions to generators and a reduction in forecast shortfalls of energy as electricity suppliers respond to market signals.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the resumption of the national energy market was a sign of pressures easing in the sector.
"(This) is the first step on the road out of energy hell, and into purgatory, we could be here for a very long time," he said.