Upgrades to PGE hydropower facility contribute to record-high energy generation on the Clackamas River

Five years after Portland General Electric began significant investments to the Faraday Powerhouse, part of the company’s West Side Hydropower project, PGE is celebrating a five-year high in emissions-free power generated from its Clackamas River facilities.

Customers' critical investments in the historic powerhouse are paying off, helping meet growing demand and modern standards for safety and the environment.

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For more than a century, PGE’s Faraday Powerhouse harnessed the power of the Clackamas River as a source of reliable energy for customers, generating enough electricity to power more than 17,000 homes.

Completed in 1907, Faraday - originally called the Cazadero Dam - was PGE’s first hydroelectric dam on the Clackamas. After taking on extensive flood damage in 1964, the facility was rebuilt and served another 50+ years in PGE’s generation portfolio.

Pictured below: The historic Faraday Powerhouse during construction.

Source: Oregon Historical Society

In 2019, PGE began a construction project to modernize Faraday. The historic powerhouse was replaced with a new building and two state-of-the-art turbines, designed to improve reliability and efficiency.

Since coming online in 2023, the new Faraday Powerhouse has generated more reliable hydropower for PGE customers than ever before. The modernized facility contributed to a record five-year high in hydropower generation on the Clackamas River, producing enough emissions-free energy to power about 70,000 homes.

“Since the Faraday Powerhouse came online, we’ve seen an increase in efficiency, meaning more megawatts generated for every drop of water that flows down the Clackamas River,” said Garth Wyatt, plant manager.

Pictured below: Faraday Powerhouse before, during and after the modernization project.

In addition to providing more emissions-free energy, the upgraded Faraday Powerhouse also provides safer conditions for wildlife. The facility’s new highly efficient turbines are designed to improve survival for juvenile fish migrating from the Clackamas River to the ocean.

“We’re seeing great results for fish, with more than one million juvenile salmon and steelhead swimming safely downstream to continue their journey to the ocean,” said Wyatt.

Just as the Faraday Powerhouse played a critical role in electrifying Oregon 100 years ago, it now serves as a key part of the state’s clean energy transition. Today, hydroelectric facilities are a critical tool to helping PGE achieve its 2030 and 2040 clean energy targets by providing consistent and reliable energy to customers without producing emissions.

About Portland General Electric

Portland General Electric (NYSE: POR) is an integrated energy company that generates, transmits and distributes electricity to over 950,000 customers serving an area of 1.9 million Oregonians. Since 1889, Portland General Electric (PGE) has been powering social progress, delivering safe, affordable, reliable and increasingly clean electricity while working to transform energy systems to meet evolving customer needs. PGE customers have set the standard for prioritizing clean energy with the No. 1 voluntary renewable energy program in the country. PGE was ranked the No. 1 utility in the 2024 Forrester U.S. Customer Experience Index and is committed to reducing emissions from its retail power supply by 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2040. In 2024, PGE employees, retirees and the PGE Foundation donated $5.5 million and volunteered nearly 23,000 hours to more than 480 nonprofit organizations. For more information visit www.PortlandGeneral.com/news