Pacific Power customers could see near thirty dollars monthly bill increase

WALLOWA COUNTY – (Information from Pacific Power) Pacific Power recently announced that it filed a general rate case and a Transition Adjustment Mechanism update with the Oregon Public Utility Commission. In total, this could result in a roughly 16.9% rate adjustment for customers, or a roughly $29.47 increase per month assuming average energy usage. This, in theory, will provide Pacific Power with an additional $304 million to be invested in wildfire risk management, infrastructure, and renewable energy.

In the announcement for these changes, Matt McVee, Pacific Power Vice President of regulatory policy and operations, gave the following statement:

“Through careful stewardship on behalf of our customers, we have delivered safe, reliable and affordable service at prices that are well below the national average. While our essential operating costs remain low, extreme weather events and increased wildfire risks are impacting all households and businesses, raising the costs of providing our essential services. We remain steadfast in our commitment to our customers and our communities and will continue to seek new ways to reduce impacts to customer bills while making critical investments in the West’s energy grid.”  

In the same announcement, Pacific Power further outlined the following primary factors for the rate increase.

• “Transmission infrastructure investments, which enable the integration of new renewable resources to serve growing customer needs.  
• Continued investments in low-cost renewable energy resources. 
• Cost of capital to finance utility operations and reflect current market conditions and risk. 
• Wildfire risk management, including rapidly growing wildfire insurance premiums, wildfire mitigation and vegetation management and the creation of a catastrophic fire fund, which would create a mechanism to manage the risks associated with increased wildfire activity.”

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Elkhorn Media Group