(FORTUNE Magazine) – The recently enacted National Energy Policy Act opens up power generation to a new class of independent companies that will burn any fuel they choose and compete on the prices they charge utilities. That's a big switch from the subsidized boondoggle enjoyed since the 1970s by many of the operators of windmills and other alternative ways to produce electricity. Federal and state regulators allowed them to charge artificially high prices as a way to decrease U.S. dependence on oil and gas, and foster more efficient technology. The new companies, called exempt wholesale generators, or Ewogs, will enter the market offering electricity at prices that are in some cases 50% less than ; those charged by windmill operators and their brethren. At Niagara Mohawk, the big utility in Syracuse, New York, CEO William Donlon estimates existing contracts with independent suppliers could cost $7.3 billion more than free- market prices over the next 15 years. Not all of that can be passed on to consumers. The Ewogs are going to introduce more competition into the business.