the cost of energy consultants hired by the chambers of commerce to help small businesses form power pools that can buy electricity in bulk at a discount.

by businesses, particularly helping poultry farms install solar panels and wind turbines. Up to 75 percent of the cost of installing such equipment can be subsidized by state and federal grants and tax credits.

also hit by high power bills to pressure federal regulators and the private, for-profit regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection, to change rules that drive up the cost of wholesale power.

The 1999 law that deregulated Delaware's power market should be reversed, senior advisers to Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said Tuesday in a report that concludes deregulation is partially responsible for electricity rate hikes coming May 1.

If the Delaware General Assembly had rejected the 1999 law, the electric bill for a typical Delaware resident would have been about 12 percent lower than under deregulation, the report found.

Consumer advocates said the report confirms what ratepayers in Delaware have known since Feb. 2, the day the state's biggest utility, Delmarva Power, announced plans to boost the size of a typical residential bill by 59 percent.

"I could have told them that a long time ago," said John Kowalko, with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a Wilmington nonprofit that lobbies on behalf of low-income residents.

The conclusions were part of the 39-page report, written by Minner's Cabinet Committee on Energy. The group, which included experts from the Delaware Public Service Commission and several other state agencies, recommended more than 30 actions the state could take in response to dramatically higher power rates.

Minner is expected to review the report in the coming days and then decide how many of the recommendations to adopt. Republican and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly were tepid about the prospect of re-regulating the electric industry when asked about the report Tuesday.

•Offer financial incentives to convince NRG Energy Inc., to upgrade its Indian River Power Plant in Millsboro and then dedicate its electricity to Delaware instead of selling it on the open market to the highest bidder.

The report was quickly challenged by proponents of deregulation, who say free-market electricity should be given a chance to prove itself before lawmakers are asked to overturn the 1999 law.

"Deregulation to date has been an enormous success," said Harris B. McDowell III, D-Wilmington North, majority leader in the state Senate. "It has saved Delaware a lot of money."

McDowell said he will push his own plan to shrink the size of the coming increases when the General Assembly reconvenes next week. But he declined to discuss details.

Delmarva Power has estimated that Delaware's economy saved about $1 billion on energy bills because the company reduced its electricity rates by 7.5 percent as part of deregulation. State regulators say they likely would have imposed that decrease even without deregulation because Delmarva's rates in 1999 were too high.

As part of deregulation, the Delaware Public Service Commission studied Delmarva's rates in 1999 and concluded that if the company had come in for a review of its rates, the company would have been forced to lower prices by about 7.5 percent, said commission Executive Director Bruce Burcat.

The report concluded that under deregulation the typical resident would pay about $149 a month for power. But if deregulation had never been adopted, the typical bill would be about $132. Today, before Delmarva's increase goes into effect, the typical resident pays about $97.

Twenty states have fully or partly deregulated their electricity markets since the 1990s, including Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. In nearly all of the deregulated states, power prices have spiked. This week, Delmarva said bills would climb for its Eastern Shore of Maryland customers by 35 percent, while residents in Baltimore are expected to see the average bill increase by 72 percent this summer when Baltimore Gas and Electric imposes rate hikes.

Leaders in both political parties have said that addressing the rate increases will be a major focus of the upcoming session of the General Assembly.

"I don't know if [re-regulation] is something the PSC could do soon enough to make a difference," said Senate President Pro Tem Thurman Adams Jr., D-Bridgeville, who received Minner's plan Wednesday afternoon. "It might be worth looking at, though."

Wayne A. Smith, Republican majority leader in the state House of Representatives, said that some form of limited deregulation will be necessary. But forcing Delmarva to sign long-term contracts today or to start building a power plant could cost residents more in the future, Smith said.

Delmarva spokesman Tim Brown said the company has not had a chance to fully study the report, but remains convinced that deregulation has benefited Delaware. The company's report on rising energy prices last month concluded that even though deregulation has not led to lower prices for some consumers, as predicted, it has prevented even higher prices that would have been imposed because of rising fuel costs.

"I think the people who promised the choice and who promised the benefits, those are the people who must be held accountable," said Richard Korn, a former candidate for New Castle County executive.

Korn recently wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice calling on prosecutors to investigate whether deregulation is a violation of anti-trust law because it has created a monopoly without any government oversight.

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