PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – Portland General Electric plans to file a general rate case next week with the Oregon Public Utility Commission, proposing an overall 4.8% rate increase that would take effect July 1, 2027, if approved.
Under the proposal, residential customers would see an average monthly bill increase of 3.9%, or about $8.33 for a household using 780 kilowatt-hours. The utility states the hike will fund electric grid upgrades, including the West Side Upgrade Project, transmission line rebuilds to mitigate wildfire risks, and the replacement of 600,000 advanced customer meters.
The proposal comes amid a series of compounding rate hikes for PGE’s approximately 963,000 customers. Rates rose 8% in 2022, nearly 9% in 2023, and 18% in 2024. Just last month, state regulators approved an average 29% rate increase specifically targeting large data centers under Oregon’s POWER Act, which shifted costs to prevent industrial growth from inflating residential bills. PGE’s new filing proposes further rate increases for data centers to ensure “growth pays for growth.”
To limit future impacts, PGE is proposing to cap annual base rate increases in 2028 and 2029 to the rate of inflation. The OPUC will now begin a public review process to evaluate the utility’s proposed investments.
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