Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell intends to seek from lawmakers changes to how the state regulates energy prices.

The governor will ask lawmakers to approve the creation of a new Department of Energy and make organizational changes to existing agencies including the Office of Policy and Management, Office of Consumer Counsel and Department of Public Utility Control.

The changes, Rell said in a Feb. 4 statement, are intended to provide for better energy planning and new conservation measures and will include creation of a task force to study ways to aggregate purchases to lower energy prices.

"The changes at the DPUC and the new Department of Energy are necessary steps," she said. "The rate approval structure currently in place has resulted in rate shock for Connecticut and it must be changed."

At the end of 2006, Rell said she would reintroduce legislation to create a Department of Energy. Her proposals are among several offered in response to rising electricity rates in the last year.

With about 70 staff from the DPUC and Office of Policy and Management, the new energy department would oversee development and planning of energy policy, alternative and renewable resources and energy infrastructure. It also would be responsible for electricity procurement for standard service and supplier-of-last-resort customers, energy market analysis, conservation and efficiency planning and management of energy usage and costs in state facilities.

Rell's plan calls for the number of DPUC commissioners to be cut to four from the current five, with the department still responsible for approving standard service, supplier-of-last-resort service and distribution rates and ratepayer-funded plans and programs for public electric and gas utilities. The department would also continue to have responsibilities relating to water and telecommunications utilities.

The OCC, meanwhile, would be expanded to include handling consumer complaints and working with utilities on behalf of consumers, the governor said.

Rell also wants to establish a task force to study the current procurement process for standard and supplier-of-last-resort service. The task force, which would make recommendations on methods for procuring the services "in order to provide consumers with equitable and stable electricity prices," will investigate the use and effectiveness of efforts in other states to reduce or control electricity generation prices.

The governor is offering other energy proposals, including elimination of the commercial utility surcharge on small businesses and requirements for 20% of all energy used and sold in Connecticut to come from clean or renewable resources by 2020; a 20% reduction in peak electricity demand by 2020; and a 20% reduction in fossil fuel consumption by 2020.

State Sen. John Fonfara and Rep. Steve Fontana, co-chairs of the General Assembly's energy committee who also have proposed energy legislation, could not immediately be reached for comment on Feb. 5.