Portland General Electric’s New POWER Act Rates Make Oregon the First State to Formally Shift AI Infrastructure Costs Away From Households and Small Businesses Onto Data Center Operators
The Oregon Public Utility Commission has approved Portland General Electric’s request to increase electricity costs for large data centers in the state, with PGE data center customers set to see an average 29% increase in rates. Residential customers will see an average 1.3% decrease, commercial customers a 2.1% decrease, and other industrial customers a 1.4% decrease. KPTV
The proposed changes were filed to comply with a previous PUC order directing PGE to assign certain costs to data centers to implement House Bill 3546, known as the POWER Act.
The framework, Schedule 96, requires data centers exceeding 20 MW to sign long-term contracts, cover 100% of distribution network upgrades needed to serve their projects, and meet minimum generation and transmission demand charges set at 90% of contracted system capacity; even if less is actually used.
Contract terms escalate with project size, beginning at 10 years and extending to 30 years for loads of 220 MW or more, with early termination penalties tied to remaining demand obligations.
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek said the state needs to “stop being a cheap date” for data centers, signalling further regulatory action is coming. The order applies only to PGE; a separate proceeding involving PacifiCorp and its Pacific Power operations remains unresolved.
This is the regulatory model the rest of the world has been waiting for. AI infrastructure consumes the electricity; it should pay for the wires needed to deliver it. Oregon just made that principle law.
Check out our previous coverage of AI infrastructure, energy and regulation on The Trusted Times.
