Push back, petitions arise amid PGE’s ‘unaffordable’ proposed rate increase

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A proposed rate increase from Portland General Electric is being met with frustration from its customers. The increase, according to Oregon Public Utility Commission reports and analysis by the Oregon Citizen Utility Board would bring a total 40% increase since January 2022.

Last week, PGE announced in a social media post it had filed for an increase of 7.4% with the OPUC that would take effect next January.

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“I don’t know what we will have to do if the rates are raised again,” Jan Newton, an 83-year-old Portland resident said. “It is simply unconscionable for seniors to freeze in their own homes while PGE continues to raise their rates.”

Newton is one of several people to take to social media after the announcement, voicing their frustration. The latest increase of 17% hit customers’ wallets this past January, just as a week-long ice storm set in on the Willamette Valley.

“There are still thousands of customers that are behind on their January bill,” said Bob Jenks, executive director of the OCUB, “They haven’t paid yet because they were so high and unaffordable.”

Jenks says OCUB will push back with this increase, as they did with the 2024 increase, though warns that PGE’s rate increase that was approved was actually higher than what it proposed. Jenks says it is common for more costs to be added to the filing during the months-long process of the OPUC evaluating the increase.

PGE says the increase “supports investments in local battery energy storage systems to enhance reliability and flexibility, and other system upgrades.” However, in reviewing the filing, KOIN 6 News found just $17.3 million is described to go to a battery storage facility project in 2025. When asked, PGE says the remaining amount of the $202 million proposed increase includes other system upgrades, like distribution and transmission lines.

“The battery storage is the excuse, not the cause of this rate increase. What they’re asking for in this rate increase is it will be a corporate, which means they want higher profits for their shareholders.” Jenks said.

Part of the request does ask for PGE’s approved “return on equity” or profit margin to be raised from 9.5% to 9.75%. PGE says if the filing is not approved, the approved profit margin will drop down to 5.29%.

It comes as Jenks says, and reports from the PUC show, PGE rates are among the highest in Oregon.

While PGE points to the West Oregon Utility co-op’s rates being higher than PGE’s (something Jenks says is due to the utility recovering after a windstorm), Oregon’s largest public utility, Eugene Water and Electric Board, charges customers 23.67% less than PGE, $0.1103/ kWh compared to $0.1364/ kWh.

“Electric utilities across the industry are facing the challenge of modernizing infrastructure, increasing resiliency and adapting to shifting customer needs, as you will see across the state based on numerous utilities recently raising, or asking to raise, rates,” A PGE spokesperson said in a statement.

Jenks argues the 30% increase in rates over the last 14 months is unfair to its customers.

“It clearly seems to me they are out of touch. They don’t understand who their customers are. They don’t sympathize with the struggles of their customers to pay their bill. And they’re really just focused on how they can get more money.”

The frustrations on social media have boiled over into a petition asking state lawmakers to take action in limiting rate increases like this.

“We’re being limited in our options for resources and forced into subjugation with this monopoly,” said Chris Boone, who created the petition.

Boone says his $300 bill this month for his 800 sq. ft. duplex is hard to manage while being laid off from one job and starting another. He says he is considering having to move to keep up. Boone believes the OPUC is not protecting customers after allowing several years of rate increases to go forward.

“Our Public Utilities Commission has failed us,” Boone said. “Failure to truly limit PGE’s rate hikes to an affordable and acceptable percentage for everyone goes against everything they are for.”

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