Howard County leaders want to eliminate state regulations that make it difficult for counties to form energy cooperatives with residents.

“I don’t think it should be necessary to have that prohibition in the first place,” said Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, referring to the state law that places the burden on counties to prove the lack of competition on utility rates before creating energy co-ops.

Howard Del. Shane Pendergrass, D-District 13, will sponsor legislation to eliminate the law in the upcoming legislative session in the General Assembly.

In August, Howard became the first county in Maryland to get approval from the state’s Public Services Commission to form a residential energy cooperative, which allows residents to save money on their energy bills by purchasing power as a unified group.

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Ulman pushed the County Council to get approval for the co-op when the state faced an expected 72 percent increase after energy rate caps expired in 2006.

The legislature subsequently passed rate stabilization that will delay increases until 2008, which made forming a cooperative immediately unnecessary.

With the gubernatorial election of Martin O’Malley, who has vowed to replace the five members of the Public Service Commission, a cooperative for residents may be unnecessary, but counties should still have “every tool necessary” to save residents money, Ulman said.

It is unknown whether residential cooperatives are big money-savers, said Richard Anderson, co-founder of the Columbia-based energy firm CQI Associates LLC.

“No one has actually done it, so we don’t know how a supplier is going to respond,” he said. “We would hope in theory that it would work.”

mmcilroy@baltimoreexaminer.com