PORTLAND, Ore — Pacific Power wants to increase customer rates by 1.6% in part to pay for investments in renewable energy. The new rate would raise $21.6 million for the utility.
It's an example of how the changing power system in the Northwest is impacting nearly everyone. Utilities are moving away from dirty sources of electricity like coal plants and toward clean renewable energy like wind and solar farms.
Pacific Power has 587,000 customers in Oregon. It recently asked the Public Utilities Commission to approve its request.
A spokeswoman said the increase would cost the typical customer an extra $4 a month.
“For that four dollars they’re getting investments in new, low cost renewables that are going to drive down their energy cost over time, investments that are going to make our grid more reliable and resilient in the face of increased wildfire risks, and deployment of new technologies that are going to help the customer service engagement improvements,” said Etta Lockey, Vice President of Regulation for Pacific Power.
She points out the request would have been higher but the company is saving money through federal tax credits for building more wind farms and it's shut down a coal plant in Arizona, which means less expense buying coal.
The company asked for a $70.8-million increase to cover expenses but also filed a power cost adjustment lowering the amount by $49 million.
“When we go out and we invest in wind – which we’ve invested in about 11-hundred megawatts of new wind. We’ve also invested in upgrades to our existing wind facilities. And once you make those investments, those onetime dollars out the door, we get savings over the life of those plants which extend for about 20 to 25 years. And so in this case we’re seeing savings of about 50 million associated with being able to operate zero fuel cost wind facilities,” said Lockey.
Pacific Power is also asking for approval to start a pilot program that encourages people to change the time of day when they use electricity.
“…if you have the ability to plug in your electric vehicle in the middle of the day or late at night, or if you can shift energy use to times when we see really low cost – primarily solar resources coming on to our system during the day when the sun is shining, you’re gonna have an opportunity to save money,” Lockey said.
Want to dig into the details of the filing? Click here.