Creating the Path To 100% Clean Electricity
Posted on July 27, 2023 by Charlotte Shuff and Kate Ayres
Tags, Energy
Pacific Power and PGE have submitted their Clean Energy Plans and each is under review by regulators and advocates, like CUB. As we review the Clean Energy Plans for Oregon’s largest electric utilities, CUB and other advocates are pushing for improvements.
In 2021, Oregon passed the 100% Clean Electricity Bill. Pacific Power and Portland General Electric (PGE) are now committed to running on 100% emission-free electricity by 2040. Oregon’s two largest electric utilities must now develop Clean Energy Plans. These plans require utilities to show how they will provide electricity without burning fossil fuels.
Maximizing Community Benefits
Clean Energy Plans are required to add measurable benefits to Oregon communities. While PGE laid out community benefits in its plan, it is unclear how these benefits were decided. Pacific Power’s plan discussed reducing energy burden, though other benefits are less clear. We still have major questions about how the utility’s planned investments are actually addressing long-term cost issues.
For both utilities, CUB and other advocates are concerned that they are taking the easy way out. We are requesting more information on how these benefits were determined and how the plans will actually achieve the goals.
Reducing Risk of Rising Bills for Oregon Customers
For both plans, CUB has concerns about what the utilities are doing to minimize costs for customers and prevent bills from skyrocketing.
Portland General Electric
CUB has questions about how PGE is planning to use the large amount of federal funds available through the Inflation Reduction Act. The utility has many opportunities to use federal dollars for workforce development, add benefits to environmental justice communities, and increase energy efficiency. It is unclear how the utility plans to use these funds instead of customers’ money.
We are also concerned that PGE is not prioritizing energy efficiency. Energy efficiency can help reduce costs for customers by reducing how much energy homes are using. It also reduces the need for utility spending on new infrastructure, which can also lower costs. CUB’s analysts are digging into PGE’s plan to evaluate the cost analysis and will ensure PGE uses customers’ money wisely.
Pacific Power
CUB has some major concerns about if Pacific Power’s plan is actually the best for Oregon’s needs. The utility is connected to a system of five other states, which makes their resource planning more complicated than other Oregon utilities. Pacific Power’s current Clean Energy Plan does not make it clear that the resources they plan to use are going to be the least cost, least risk option for Oregon.
Pacific Power’s emission reduction goals leave a lot to be desired. It does not give a lot of strategies to meet compliance. It also includes a plan to transition old coal plants to natural gas by 2030 before moving the converted gas plants to renewables by 2040. CUB is concerned that the gas conversion in this plan will add an unnecessary cost to customers and slow down the transition to emissions-free (or clean) electricity.
CUB is also critical of Pacific Power’s plans for using federal funds for energy efficiency investments. The current plan makes vague references to strategies related to this but doesn’t actually give information on its strategies. We will continue to ask tough questions and push for a clear, realistic plan for 100% clean electricity.
Improvements on Community Engagement
As directed by the 100% Clean Electricity law, utilities must engage with community groups as they create their Clean Energy Plans. So far, CUB and other community advocates have identified some issues from both utilities.
Understandable for Community Groups
Clean Energy Plans need to be accessible to community organizations who are interested in reviewing them.
As they stand now, the readability of the plans is a major barrier. The documents are long and full of incredibly technical jargon. Pacific Power’s plan currently stands at 140 pages (PGE is slightly better at 30 pages). The plans from both utilities also often require readers to reference even more technical documents to find basic information.
CUB and other advocates are recommending that the utilities shorten the documents, lower the reading level, and add clickable navigation in the tables of contents.
Transparency Around Community Engagement
Clean Energy Plans must include significant community engagement—and reflect community input. As of now, both utilities have not been transparent about their engagement process. We are requesting that the utilities provide basic answers to questions.
How did the utility engage with community members? What community representatives were engaged and from which communities? What environmental justice community representation was included? How did community input inform decision-making?
Particularly from Pacific Power, it is unclear which community representatives were engaged. CUB suspects that the utility prioritized business representatives and did not prioritize underserved or environmental justice communities. The intent of the 100% Clean law was to prioritize people in Oregon who are most impacted by climate change and have traditionally held the least amount of power in utility regulation.
Next Steps in the Clean Energy Plans
CUB has filed comments for both Clean Energy Plans. The next step is for advocates and regulators to weigh in again over the next few months. This next round of comments will be reviewed by the utilities and inform updates to the plans. Finally, regulators at the Public Utility Commission will do a final review of the plans.
We expect PGE to have its plans finalized by late January. Pacific Power will likely have its plan finalized in Spring 2024.
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07/27/23 | 0 Comments | Creating the Path To 100% Clean Electricity