Pacific Power rates to drop in 2021 with shift away from coal

Pacific Power customers in Oregon will see lower rates on their electric bills next month — in part because of the utility’s shift away from coal-fired power.

Oregon regulators have decided Pacific Power should reduce the rates it charges customers for electricity by an average of about 5.2%, and about half that reduction is tied to the lower fuel costs and tax credits that come with adding renewable wind and solar power.

But Pacific Power’s parent company PacifiCorp, which serves 1.9 million customers across six Western states, still gets about half of its electricity from coal, and the utility had actually asked the state of Oregon to approve a rate increase.

In its first-rate case since 2013, PacifiCorp asked the Oregon Public Utility Commission for permission to charge its customers more in part to cover its investments in coal plant pollution controls and the eventual costs of decommissioning its coal plants altogether.

The commission took issue with those requests, reducing the amount of money the company can recover from its coal plant pollution control investments and denying the company’s request to charge Oregon customers for newly calculated costs of shutting down coal plants. Commissioners said they want to investigate the company’s decommissioning costs before approving any related rate increases.