PGE Moves on Data Center Accountability
Posted on March 3, 2026 by Charlotte Shuff
Tags, Energy, General Interest
This year, CUB has been working diligently to address a significant source of rising energy costs for many Oregonians: data centers. In June, we helped pass the POWER Act (HB 3546), a bill designed to hold data centers accountable for their own energy costs. PGE’s original proposal left CUB questioning whether PGE was ignoring this new law.
Now, PGE’s new proposal shows significant improvements, thanks to public pressure and CUB pushback. We still have a long way to go to ensure data centers are accountable for their own energy needs, though. With the public process wrapping up, it is now in the regulators’ hands to decide how PGE data centers will be responsible for energy costs.
PGE Has Made Significant Improvements
While CUB is not fully satisfied with the changes PGE has made to its proposal for how it will charge data centers, we have seen many positive changes.
These improvements came after CUB and other advocates pushed back hard on policies that would have let data centers off easy. More than 1,300 community members also submitted public comments on this proposal, one of the largest volumes in recorded history at the Oregon Public Utility Commission.
Even Higher Billing Rates for Data Centers
NEW: PGE is proposing to increase data center billing rates by 26%
The old proposal only increased billing rates by 18%
PGE’s new proposal shows that the first draft was going easy on data centers. With the utility’s new analysis, results show that data centers haven’t been covering their own costs. This is further proof that the POWER Act was not just necessary, but also will have an impact on power bills.
As more data centers come online, these new rates will have an even bigger impact on household and other business customers. This current process is shifting the accounting of who pays for past investments. As new data centers create more investments, we can prevent Oregonians from having to pay for data centers’ energy costs in the first place.
CUB and analysts at the Oregon Public Utility Commission agree that raising data center billing rates needs to go even further than a 26% increase.
Directly Assigning Big Investments to Data Centers
NEW: PGE is proposing assigning the costs for some big data-center-caused investments to data centers for 10 years
The old proposal only charged data centers for 3 years
When data centers come online and require big upgrades to provide service just to them, they should be responsible for these costs. We have seen a few examples of expensive substations in Hillsboro that are only connected to data centers, with no benefit to residential or other customers.
In the previous proposal, PGE planned to only assign costs for three years. While this is an improvement, it is not enough. Many utility investments are meant to last for 50 years. Customers slowly pay for those costs over those 50 years, along with paying for the profits utilities are allowed to make from investments. PGE is proposing that data centers only pay for the first 10 years of the 50-year costs, with all other customers, including households, picking up the next 40 years of investment costs.
CUB has continued to push regulators to charge data centers for the full cost of investments that only benefit data centers.
Many Issues Still Remain in the Path to Holding Data Centers Accountable
While we have seen improvements in the big issues CUB had concerns about from PGE’s initial proposal, there are still more issues remaining. This list for the Oregon Public Utility Commission to rule on is long: over 50 items remain.
Some of the big issues remaining include:
- Terms of the required 10-year contracts for different sizes of data centers
- Penalties for data centers using more energy than projected
- Deposits and protections for data centers closing before contract expiration
- And much, much more!
While much debate remains on the specifics of data centers’ contracts with utilities, CUB remains focused on how costs are assigned to these customers. These contracts set details for how much electricity and for how long data centers will be charged. But without setting the rates for how much to charge per unit of energy, we cannot truly hold data centers accountable for paying for their own energy use.
As of February 24, 2026, the record for this case has been closed. Now, it is up to the Oregon Public Utility Commission to decide how data centers will be charged by PGE. A final decision is expected by April 30, 2026.
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03/03/26 | 0 Comments | PGE Moves on Data Center Accountability