BOSTON (AP) – A new federal pricing policy could put tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue into the hands of power companies this summer, an analysis commissioned by three New England states claims.

The report, commissioned by officials in Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire, attempts to evaluate the success of the region’s four-year-old experiment opening up wholesale electricity markets, and to explain the impact of complicated changes recently implemented by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The consultants, Synapse Energy Economics of Cambridge, said it’s too early to tell what impact the change will have.

But the report includes an analysis of possible scenarios related to FERC’s order that range from $100 million to $600 million in “additional energy market compensation to the generations units.”

Those profits by electric generators could ultimately lead to higher utility rates for homes and businesses.

“This rule certainly pays generators more than the previous rules in place,” Ellen Angley, vice president of energy supply and transmission for Nstar Electric, with 1 million Massachusetts customers, told The Boston Globe.

“There’s a definite possibility of this increasing power prices beyond what they were last summer.”

The rules are designed to encourage construction and stability but could raise prices, the report claimed.

But officials with the New England power grid said the pricing mechanism, which limits rates that can be charged during high demand, is too new and complex to say how it will affect rates.

Erin O’Brien, a spokeswoman for Independent System Operator New England, the Holyoke organization that operates the grid and wholesale markets, said that last Friday, when demand was the eighth-highest on record in New England, wholesale spot market prices hit $138 per megawatt-hour. That’s more than triple normal levels but far below past peaks.

But Michael Holmes, the state consumer advocate representing ratepayers at the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, said the rule change worried him.

“I think there is a serious problem with the FERC,” he said. “What you have is a bunch of ivory tower theoreticians who contributed to the disaster in California that are tinkering with the New England system. They’re not in touch with reality down there.”

AP-ES-07-02-03 1409EDT