By R.H. Melton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 16, 1998; Page B01

Led by a small army of lobbyists, Virginia Power won a major legislative victory today as a House committee approved a measure that would deregulate the state's electric industry within six years.

Proponents of the measure chiefly benefiting the utility, which serves 600,000 Northern Virginians, said it almost certainly would drive rates down for most consumers, but some wary lawmakers from rural Virginia who enjoy cheap power said their rates surely would rise in a less regulated energy market.

The 23 to 3 vote in the Corporations, Insurance and Banking Committee was easily the most far-reaching of the day, as several panels in the House of Delegates and Senate plowed through mountains of bills before a Tuesday deadline for major votes in each chamber.

"This bill is important, because it's about bringing rates down," said Eva S. Teig, a former state Cabinet secretary who is now a senior executive at the power company.

"It ensures that consumers will be protected and guarantees reliable service," Teig said. "It is a massive change in the way that the United States has handled the delivery of electric power."

The measure passed today sets the framework for full retail competition, which theoretically would give consumers greater freedom of choice in selecting their power suppliers.

Virginia Power officials said that in Britain, South America and other countries where the utility has bought its power from pooled sources, passing it along to consumers in a competitive arena, rates declined 15 to 35 percent.

Fifteen other states, including most of the Northeast and California, where rates are among the highest in the country, have embarked on a deregulation course, the utility said.

A few lawmakers were skeptical about experimenting in Virginia.

"I'm not too taken with the hyperbole that everybody's on this bandwagon," said Del. Clifton A. "Chip" Woodrum (D-Roanoke). "There is no need to hurry. . . . How exceedingly complex this issue is, and how dangerous it is that we go down this path not knowing where we're going."

Some of Richmond's best -- and most expensive -- lobbying talent worked on behalf of Virginia Power, and as the lobbyists sat before him in the committee room, Woodrum smiled and said to his colleagues, "Through the night, through the halls of the General Assembly, there has been the pitter-patter of little feet, and there have been persuasions!"

Virginia Power has long been one of the more muscular corporate citizens with interests before the legislature, and all its big lobbying guns were arrayed today: Teig, a fixture in Democratic Party circles; William G. Thomas, adviser to governors and one of the capital's premier lobbyists; E.L. "Bill" Crump, who has represented the utility's interests here for more than 25 years; and Jeff Gregson, a savvy operative long associated with the Republican Party.

Privately, utility officials said the deregulation bill was aimed chiefly at the company's shareholders, some of whom are antsy about power companies in other states encroaching on Virginia as the national industry climbs onto a free-market bandwagon.

Much of this city's corporate culture -- Richmond is home to a number of statewide banks, brokers and insurers -- has been shaken in recent months as North Carolina financial institutions have gobbled up several home-grown lenders. Utility watchers said they want to guard against that happening with Virginia Power.

Del. Gladys B. Keating (D-Fairfax), the corporations committee's new chairman, said she voted against the measure because of the haste with which her panel had proceeded.

"I don't like to be hurried on something as important as this," she said, adding that the original version of the bill had marginalized the oversight role of the State Corporation Commission, a powerful utility watchdog. The committee installed safeguards today to guarantee a greater role for the commission.

"I have yet to know how we're going to protect the reliability of the service," Keating said. Asked whether she was concerned about rates rising in a deregulated climate, she replied: "I worry about it."