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Could Delawareans be blindsided by massive electric bills like Texans? It's unlikely.

Amanda Parrish
Delaware News Journal

The snowstorm that caused widespread power outages in Texas is over, but residents have been left with massive electric bills for thousands of dollars.

As for Delaware, residents shouldn't worry about this happening to them.

Most residents and businesses are protected by fixed-rated billing from either Delmarva Power, Delaware Electric Cooperative or their municipality. So if similar power outages happen in the First State, residents should be safe from outrageous price swings.

Samantha Hemphill, ombudsman for Delaware Public Service Commission, said Delmarva Power customers — whether their electricity is supplied through the company or a third party — are locked into a fixed rate. And the only way Delmarva Power can raise its rates is to get it approved by the commission.

"They are protected by the commission setting rates. The commission sets their rates and those are the ones [Delmarva Power] has to follow," she said."There are definitely safeguards in place. They just can't raise prices, just because."

Hemphill said it can take from six to 18 months for Delmarva to get a new rate approved by the commission, so what happened in Texas can't happen to Delmarva Power's 300,000 customers.

Many of the problems with these astronomical prices in Texas are due to the state's deregulated energy system, which includes variable price billing. Some residents chose this model, which ties the rate to the supply and demand in the energy market.

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This can reduce power bills during good weather, but can lead to spikes when demand soars. Most Texans pay a fixed rate for power and get predictable monthly bills.

Some Texans who use variable price billing are seeing energy bills that ranged into the tens of thousands, including one of more than $16,000.

Although Delaware also operates under a deregulated electric market, residents shouldn't be worried about this happening to them.

In 1999, the General Assembly passed legislation deregulating the electric markets, allowing residents and businesses to choose which company provides their power. Hemphill said people either get their electricity from Delmarva Power – where people can get it through a third-party supplier, Delaware Electric Cooperative or their municipality.

The Public Service Commission still regulates the distribution, and the pricing of electricity transmission is regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, according to PSC's website.

Washington, D.C., and 17 states, including Delaware, have some form of a deregulated electricity market.

Delaware has the lowest energy production out of all the states in the U.S., relying on power from other states in the region, and consumes about 100 times more energy than it produces.

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Kevin Yingling, manager of business development and energy services at Delaware Electric Cooperative, said this can't happen to the 105,000 customers they serve. Its prices are entirely fixed, so even if widespread outages occurred in Delaware, their customers would not be affected.

"If we had a winter storm like that, or even a summer hurricane storm, that wouldn't cause our members' prices to fluctuate like that," he said.