May 17, 2022 10:30 a.m.

Pacific Power has filed with the Oregon Public Utility Commission its annual Power Cost Adjustment Mechanism, which trues-up the actual costs of power from 2021 to the estimated costs that were put into rates during that year.

A release from the utility said the request varies between customers classifications, but in total averages four percent, or a $50.5 million increase in costs to customers.

Matthew McVee, the vice president of regulatory policy and operations, said 2021 was a difficult volatile year for energy policies in the west. McVee said, “The past year saw a record heat dome in the Northwest and unseasonable cold snaps”. McVee said the company’s ten state footprint and diverse sources of power generation allowed them to weather those extremes. He said, “However the spike in the cost of electricity we needed to buy on the market to serve customer needs, the drop in hydropower generation caused by the long-term drought, and the prices for natural gas, which is used in some of our generating plants, still exceeded projections”.

The PCAM rate request will be reviewed by the commission. As part of its request, Pacific Power is proposing that the rate adjustment take effect at the start of 2023.

The utility plans to introduce an on-bill rate discount to support customers who are experiencing income restraints. The proposed discount would be twenty-five percent for households with qualified income under sixty percent of the state’s median income. If approved, this discount would take effect August first.