Pacific Power Moves a Step Forward on Oregon’s Clean Energy Path

Exclusion of coal-fired electricity from Oregon’s power system lies at the heart of the state’s transition toward a clean energy path. SB 1547 mandates that electricity provided to Oregon customers by Pacific Power (sometimes called PacifiCorp) and other utilities be coal-free by 2030. The legislation effectively excludes Oregon ratepayers from paying for coal-generated electricity in the utility’s system past the next decade. As a six-state utility, Pacific Power faces the dual challenge of designing state resource portfolios in line with different state policies, while also ensuring that states assume their share of costs and benefits of their own portfolios.

CUB, along with other stakeholders, assisted Pacific Power in designing its optimal (preferred) portfolio in the company’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), and in reaching an agreement among states in cost allocation of resources, including costs of coal plants that Oregon customers would stop paying for, through the Multi-State Protocol (MSP) process.

CUB and other parties had advocated to the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) for Pacific Power to perform a unit by unit coal retirement study in its 2019 IRP. The study resulted in an accelerated retirement of six of its coal plants, which were scheduled in the 2017 IRP to retire at a later date. These include Naughton Units 1 and 2 (retiring in 2025 instead of 2029), Colstrip Units 3 and 4 (retiring in 2027 instead of 2046), Jim Bridger Unit 1 (2023 instead of 2028), and Jim Bridger Unit 2 (2028 instead of 2032). In addition, the utility selects retirement of 16 coal units by 2030. Naughton Unit 1 is already closed and Cholla Unit 4 is scheduled to close by the end of 2020. The unit by unit study reveals that coal is no longer the economic resource it used to be. While the near-term (by 2025) coal plant closure plans (Cholla 4, Naughton 1 and 2, and Jim Bridger 1) will have to be acknowledged by the PUC, and future economic analysis could change the outcome of the current coal study, there are still enough reasons to be optimistic.

As more and more states start implementing carbon policies, the coal plants will become increasingly uneconomic to operate, putting customers paying for these plants at an economic risk. The 2019 MSP agreement reduces this risk by allowing Oregon ratepayers to cease paying toward Pacific Power’s coal plants by the end of 2030. In terms of emissions, the MSP agreement to phase out coal from Oregon rates results in almost 6 percent greater reduction in emissions for the state compared to that realized in the IRP coal study for all states on Pacific Power’s system.

CUB has actively participated with utilities and other stakeholders, and influenced analyses in both the IRP and MSP processes. Through such tireless advocacy, CUB has ensured that Oregon ratepayers are not exposed to economic risks as the state advances toward its clean energy goals.

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