PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – After a year of consideration, the Oregon Public Utility Commission issued its decision to cut PacifiCorp’s request for a rate increase in 2025.
With PUC’s approval, the utility company will receive an 8.5% overall increase from residential, commercial and industrial customers in 2025. This is less than half of the 17.9% increase PacifiCorp had originally requested.
The decision to increase PacifiCorp’s rate was “capital investments in transmission, generation and other infrastructure, as well as wildfire-related cost increases,” according to the PUC. However, the commission said it wanted to ensure PacifiCorp could keep its rates as low as possible for customers.
“As regulators, our job is to look out for customers,” PUS Chair Megan Decker said. “We know that rate increases are difficult for Oregonians, and we only approve them after independently scrutinizing the facts and concluding that increasing rates is necessary to support safe and reliable utility service.”
Overall, the commission chose to reduce the utility’s request after addressing 60 contested issues, which included 2020 wildfire restoration costs and wildfire insurance premiums.
The PUC said it was split on only two of the issues, ultimately leading to their final decision to reduce PacifiCorp’s return on equity from 9.5 percent to 9.3 percent.
PacifiCorp shared the following statement about its decision with KOIN 6 News:
While rate increases are never welcome news, this outcome is the result of an independent review by the Commission, including significant scrutiny and input from staff, members of the public and key stakeholders. We continue to provide safe, low-cost and reliable electricity, while transitioning our system to clean energy, in extreme weather, with increasing demand and in the face of broader affordability challenges. We remain steadfast in our commitment to our customers and our communities and will continue seeking new ways to reduce impacts to customer bills and provide assistance to our most vulnerable customers.
PacifiCorp is expected to file a calculation of the final rate changes for each customer type within the next week, and these changes — once approved — will go into effect Jan. 1, 2025.
The utility company said it estimates that the average residential customer will see a $14 increase on their monthly power bill.
