Pacific Power residential customers across Oregon will see a rate increase of almost 10% on their energy bills starting next year.
On Thursday, the Oregon Public Utilities Commission announced PacifiCorp’s residential, industrial and commercial customers would see a combined 8.5% increase on their energy bills starting Jan. 1. PacifiCorp is the parent company of Pacific Power.
Residential customers are expected to see a 9.8% increase, a much lower rate increase from the company’s 17.9% request earlier this year.
FILE - A PacifiCorp owned substation.
Amelia Templeton / OPB
Pacific Power’s rates are increasing due to investments in transmission, generation and wildfire-related cost increases.
Including the increase approved Thursday, PacifiCorp’s residential rates have climbed by nearly 50% since 2021. The utility has also faced numerous lawsuits including one filed by the federal government Thursday over the 2020 Labor Day fires. PacifiCorp estimates that wildfire lawsuits and other fire related expenses have cost it $2.7 billion dollars so far.
In a press release, the Public Utility Commission said it was able to moderate the increase PacifiCorp originally requested.
“As regulators, our job is to look out for customers,” PUC Chair Megan Decker said in a statement. “We know that rate increases are difficult for Oregonians, and we only approve them after independently scrutinizing the facts and concluding that increasing rates is necessary to support safe and reliable utility service.”
Omar Granados, a spokesperson for Pacific Power said residential customers should expect to see their energy bills go up by about $14 per month.
“While rate increases are never welcome news, this outcome is the result of an independent review by the Commission, including significant scrutiny and input from staff, members of the public and key stakeholders,” Granados said in an email.
The Public Utilities Commission has been reviewing PacifiCorp’s request since early in the year, and said it disputed more than 60 issues to reduce rates. As a result, the commission said, it cut 50% of costs related to 2020 Wildfire Restoration, required shareholders to cover 10% of wildfire insurance premiums and ensured energy used by large customers, like data centers, does not increase costs for the utilities’ other customers.
The commission also prohibited PacifiCorp from disconnecting power to the state’s most vulnerable Oregonians, through April 1. That includes people who have serious health conditions that could worsen during a power outage or require constant electricity for medical devices.
The utility is also required to create a more generous bill discount program for its customers.
That’s a win for residential customers, utility watchdog group Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board said in a statement.
“This year, Pacific Power shut off more Oregon families than ever recorded because bills were unaffordable,” Oregon CUB executive director Bob Jenks said in a statement. “We need strong, lasting protections to make sure no one goes without heating, refrigeration, or medical devices. We cannot have our essential services, like electricity, rising to luxury prices.”
According to Oregon CUB, Pacific Power shut off power to more than 20,000 households from January through October.
For all of 2019, the number of disconnections was 19,368.
Earlier this year, Oregon CUB proposed a cap that would limit rate increases to no more than 10%, or 7% plus inflation, whichever is lower. The state utilities commission rejected the proposal saying it would be difficult to implement, according to Oregon CUB.
New rates take effect Jan. 1.
Portland General Electric customers will also see new rates next year. Those rates are set to be released Friday.