The Post is reporting that beginning Feb. 8, residential customers can expect the cost of electricity to increase an average of 18%.

The energy company Pepco argues the dramatic increase is simply an adjustment from the “below-market” rates customers are paying now, which have been locked in since 2001. The increase, which one real estate executive described as “whopping,” is expected to hit small businesses especially hard. The increase is due in part to energy deregulation, which has allowed companies like Enron to move to extract profits from what used to be a closely regulated industry. In most places the alleged benefits of energy deregulation are yet to be seen: one D.C. resident telling the Post “I haven’t experienced any savings at all with utility deregulation.”