Gathering in the grand ballroom of the Portland Sentinel Hotel, L&C’s climate and energy policy institute, the Green Energy Institute (“GEI”), represented by GEI Director Carra Sahler ’02 and staff attorney Cole Souder ’24, shared expertise on Oregon’s local energy landscape in two separate panels for an Energy Policy Conference, “Harnessing Local Energy is Tomorrow.”
Hosted by the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board (“OCUB”), GEI panelists presented in two panels at the conference. The event invited members of the general public, energy industry professionals, electricity and natural gas utilities, lawyers, and state policymakers to exchange thoughtful insights on challenging energy ratemaking, transitioning, and community impact in an increasingly warm world, as data centers insert significant pressure over an already stressed waterscape and landscape in Oregon.
As part of the first featured panel, “Good Grid Neighbors,” Sahler introduced GEI’s overall role and highlighted GEI’s past contribution to the implementation of HB 3546, Oregon’s POWER Act. To close the gap between energy supply and demand, the Act requires Oregon’s investor-owned utilities to establish a separate rate class for data centers, insulating residential, commercial, and industrial ratepayers from those costs. To strengthen protections for customers in the residential rate class, the institute recommended that data centers pay Oregon utilities a “1 cent/kWh” surcharge to fund non-cost-effective energy efficiency, help low-income customers repair or retrofit outdated systems, and meet carbon-emission reduction requirements. GEI’s recommendation was adopted by the Oregon Public Utility Commission this year.
For the second panel, “Data Centers: New Kids On the Block,” Cole discussed the POWER Act’s impact on data center regulation in depth. Specifically, he mapped out the different service tracks for data centers at Oregon’s two main electricity utilities, drawing on the institute’s policy paper to explain differences in status and geographic characteristics across their service territories. Given these differences, he noted that in PacifiCorp’s geographically spread-out territories, the utility should treat data centers as distinct customers and impose charges directly. For PGE’s condensed, more populated service territories, using a new method of allocating cost, called Peak Growth Modifier (“PGM”) is a better method, based on each class’s capacity growth rather than its peak capacity.
Looking ahead, to ensure a just and fair energy transition in Oregon, all communities, especially Tribal sovereigns in the Pacific Northwest, must be fairly considered when designing, implementing, and modifying electricity rates, system designs, and energy transitions. GEI has been deeply involved and will continue to work to create flexibility and accountability in the shared electric grid system.
