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SAN FRANCISCO — California power regulators again have delayed a vote on a pair of proposals that either would end electricity competition in the state or only allow businesses with deals already in place to continue buying from an energy seller other than their local utility. 

Should the state Public Utilities Commission choose to end competition — more than a year after lawmakers first ordered it to — it effectively would conclude the state’s flawed effort to deregulate its electricity markets. 

Lawmakers had predicted in 1996 that deregulation would encourage competition between traditional utilities such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and energy sellers such as Commonwealth Energy and Enron Corp. 

Instead, a rate freeze kept utilities from collecting the full amount of soaring energy costs from customers, driving the state’s largest utility, PG&E, into bankruptcy. Rolling blackouts darkened the state, and Californians now pay among the highest electric rates in the country. 

When prices went up last summer, thousands of businesses flocked to buy cheaper electricity from utility competitors. As of October, more than 81,000 Californians — mostly large businesses — bought electricity from a competing seller, according to the PUC. 

Some, including the California State University system and the San Francisco Giants, have saved thousands, even millions of dollars, as a result. 

But the state bought enough energy to supply them as well. Many lawmakers and consumer advocates say those businesses must buy from the state’s pool of power to avoid foisting the entire cost onto residential and small business customers. 

PUC spokeswoman Terrie Prosper said Commissioner Carl Wood — who favors retroactively barring competition back to July 2001, voiding thousands of contracts in the process — delayed Wednesday’s scheduled vote until March 21 to analyze Commissioner Jeff Brown’s alternate proposal. 

Wood’s proposal would prevent current customers from renewing their contracts when they expire, which energy sellers say will drive them from California.  

Brown’s plan would allow current contracts to continue, but charge customers an “exit fee” to help the state pay its $10 billion power-buying debt. 

Backers of consumer choice have rallied behind Brown’s proposal, and said Wednesday they think Wood hopes to gain support from Michael R. Peevey, a former Southern California Edison president whom Gov. Gray Davis has appointed to the commission. 

Had the vote gone forward with GOP-appointed Commissioner Richard Bilas still present, a majority of the PUC appeared likely to support Brown’s proposal, which would let customers such as the University of California and McDonald’s continue buying electricity from utility competitors, said Dan Douglass, legal counsel for the Alliance for Retail Energy Markets. 

That flies in the face of lawmakers, who last February ordered state regulators to end consumer choice. California has spent billions buying electricity for the customers of PG&E and two other utilities, and lawmakers wanted to ensure all customers helped pay that debt. 

The PUC already has blocked businesses and residents from making any new energy buying arrangements after September 2001. 

Wednesday was the last meeting for outgoing Commissioner Bilas, a strong advocate of deregulation who is leaving the commission to care for his ailing wife and because of policy frustrations. 

He said the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 “profoundly affected him.” 

“It is with regret that I leave but I think there comes a time in every person’s life where you have to look around you and see what it is that you have,” Bilas said with tears in his eyes. 

“I walked around the house, looked at what I had, walked around my property saw how beautiful it was. Looked at my wife of 45 years and discovered how beautiful she was, is. And from that time on I was saying to myself daily, I’ve got to leave.” 

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On the Net: 

http://www.cpuc.ca.gov