PORTLAND, Ore. — Utility rates for Portland General Electric (PGE) customers are expected to go up by about 17% in 2024, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) said Tuesday. The utility commission recently approved two PGE rate increases: a yearly adjustment for power supply costs and a general rate increase for all other utility costs.
This marks the second year in a row that PGE has increased its rates. In 2023, rates for residential customers increased between 7% and 20%. Earlier this year, PGE proposed a 14% rate increase for all customers in 2024.
"Drivers for the general rate increase include capital investments, including the Faraday Resiliency and Repowering hydroelectric project, resilience and reliability upgrades in transmission and distribution systems, increased costs of the vegetation management program to help ensure the safety and reliability of the system, and inflation," PUC said in a news release. "Power costs have risen sharply with increased volatility in the Western electricity market."
The rate-increase data isn't official yet, the utility commission said. The final impact of the general rate and power cost increases, along with other rate adjustments proposed by PGE, including "additional charges to recover costs of the company's wildfire mitigation actions," will be reported in December after PGE's additional adjustment proposals have been reviewed and the updated power forecast for 2024 is filed.
"The rate increase reflects the need to invest in the reliability and resiliency of PGE’s system, advance policy objectives like equity and clean energy, and the reality that PGE faces inflationary pressures and high market power prices," said PUC Chair Megan Decker. "At the same time, we recognize how significant this rate increase will be for families and businesses, and we encourage them to seek out help with bills through energy efficiency and the rate discount program that, in this decision, we have expanded to better support Oregonians experiencing low incomes."
Resources
- Learn more about Energy Trust of Oregon's current incentives and opportunities, including low and moderate income offers at energytrust.org
- Learn more about and enroll in an energy assistance or cost savings program at portlandgeneral.com/save-money
- Learn more about PGE's Income Qualified Bill Discount Program at portlandgeneral.com/income-qualified-bill-discount
- Call PGE at 503-228-6322 for more information or visit this website: https://portlandgeneral.com/about/newsroom/price-changes
