2022 Pricing Request

On July 9, 2021, PGE asked the Oregon Public Utility Commission to review our costs of providing service and approve new customer prices for 2022.

On April 25, 2022, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) issued a final order in Portland General Electric’s General Rate Case finalizing our customer prices for the remainder of 2022 and resolving all remaining regulatory issues.

As a result of the case, overall, customer prices will increase 0.9% and, combined with power cost changes earlier in the year, represent a 3.2% increase.

We have to continue upgrading the grid to deliver safe, reliable, clean electricity to customers where, when and how they want it. For customers, this means:

• Fewer, shorter outages

• A cleaner, healthier environment from lower emissions and faster decarbonization

• Greater safety and lower impact during hazardous wildfire seasons and severe weather

• More choices for clean, renewable energy sources

• We’re intensifying protections to keep our system wildfire-safe and resilient from weather and disaster-related crises that will help all year round. Our No. 1 priority is protecting the lives and property of the customers and communities we serve. As Oregon’s weather gets hotter and drier, increasing the risk of catastrophic wildfires this work takes on increased importance and urgency.

• A key priority has been to invest in our transmission and distribution (T&D) system to maintain and build its strength as equipment has aged out and as we face new challenges with extreme weather and wildfires, allowing us to deliver safe, reliable, clean electricity to customers where, when and how they want it.

  • Examples include an Integrated Operations Center (IOC) set to open in the fourth quarter of 2021. The IOC will be the smart grid’s nerve center – a critical part of PGE’s strategy to deliver the reliable, affordable clean energy future our customers need and expect.

  • An Advanced Distribution Management System that will allow us to manage increased demand while integrating existing and new renewable resources and also help advance our decarbonization efforts.

  • To meet these needs of our customers, a strong Transmission & Distribution system is essential. Over the past three years, we have invested heavily in needed pole and underground wire replacements that have come to the end of their useful lives, and we have made numerous substation upgrades to maintain reliability and address new and growing load.

    • New and upgraded poles and wires to deliver electricity where it needs to go, whether a home, a business or an electric vehicle charging station. These additions and upgrades help us serve growing capacity needs and also make our system more resilient to weather-related crises such as devastating wildfires and ices storms like we’ve experienced recently.

    • New substations to address growing capacity needs. And we’re upgrading some existing substations to address heavily loaded systems.

    • Upgrading the Faraday Hydro Facility on the Clackamas River, including adding two higher-efficiency turbines housed in a reinforced concrete structure with new flood protection systems to increase plant reliability and efficiency.

• We want to be the national model for clean energy, which includes aggressively decarbonizing our energy sources to deliver the future Oregonians want and PGE is committed to.

Overall, customer prices will increase 0.9% and, combined with power cost changes earlier in the year, represent a 3.2% increase.

• Schedule 7 Residential: 3.9%

• Schedule 32 Small Nonresidential: 3.2%

• Schedule 83 31-200 kW: 0.1%

• Schedule 85 201-4,000 kW: -5.2%

• Schedule 89 Over 4,000 kW: -4.5%

• Schedule 90 100 MWa: -6.4%

• COS & DA Overall: 0.9%

May 9, 2022

We work with the OPUC to determine all of our pricing, and that includes distributing costs so they are fairly allocated across all customer types. We end up with different prices for different types of customers because they use different amounts of energy, and the costs to serve them vary. As power costs increased, those same customers received a lower than average increase the last two years.

Prices are set for Oregon’s investor-owned utilities in an open, public process that’s conducted by the OPUC and includes input from the Commission Staff, customer advocates and other stakeholders. There will be several opportunities for public comment, including open house meetings, plus the opportunity to submit written comments. From start to finish, the process is expected to take about 10 months. The OPUC weighs all of the input that it receives to make sure our prices are fair and reasonable.

We operate our business to deliver the best possible value to our customers, which is why we’re careful about raising prices only when necessary. Across our business, we’ve been working hard to hold the line on costs and put downward pressure on prices. We have found millions of efficiency savings during the last three years, which have served to offset our growing, needed costs to support wildfire mitigation and vegetation management.

We periodically review our costs to serve customers with the OPUC to determine all of our pricing.

We are in the midst of a multi-year project to create a smarter, more resilient grid, which is required to meet our customers’ needs. We’re also working to decarbonize our energy supply and ensure we maintain reliability. To do this, it’s necessary to make investments in our system. At the same time, we are respectful of the impact price increases can have on our customers, and we are committed to protecting affordability and reliability.

We will continue to work closely with the OPUC so you can be assured we’re making reasonable investments that reflect the values of our region and the energy needs of all our customers. As always, you will continue to have a voice in our process. You can attend a public “open house” where you can ask questions, get information and offer your point of view. Visit oregon.gov/puc to learn about the process.