No one likes deregulation if it brings their business more competition. Regulated utilities have another problem. They built all these gold-plated generating plants back when it made perfect economic sense to do so. But in a deregulated market, those plants turn into white elephants. The non-utility companies can produce electricity cheaper.
Regulated utilities realize that deregulation is inevitable.
They simply want to put it off for as long as possible. And they want someone to help them pay for what will be uneconomical generating plants. In the jargon of the trade, those are stranded costs. Electric utilities want those who pay electric bills to also pay for those stranded costs. And they are succeeding.