As if the economic news isn’t bad enough, wholesale power prices are going up, too. They rose 6 to 11 percent in most regions of the country in 2007. That’s the word from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in its annual State of the Markets Report released yesterday.

The biggest increases came in the Midwest, boosted by higher loads and congestion. Not much new electric generation came online this year, the report said, with wind and natural gas accounting for three-quarters of new capacity.  Across the country, proposals for several coal-fired plants were dropped, reflecting uncertainty about the future treatment of carbon-dioxide emissions.

In Virginia, the fate of a new $1.8 billion, 585-megawatt coal plant proposed by Dominion Virginia Power remains unclear. The state’s Air Pollution Control Board voted yesterday to take control over the permitting process to ensure strict limits on pollutants, a move Dominion fears will lead to costly delays.

“Virginia is the second-largest importer of electricity in the country, behind only California, and there is an urgent need to build dependable electric generation facilities in the state,” Dominion responded in a statement. “Building more generation … is essential to stabilizing costs for customers over the long run and enhancing energy security.”

Price caps have kept electric costs relatively stable here. However, they will be reviewed next year by the General Assembly and could come off by 2010. In July, Virginia Business will do a special report on energy, updating readers on issues in the fast-changing power industry.