Utilities 101: Understanding Your Pacific Power Bill

For many customers, understanding what goes into your monthly energy bill can be confusing. In this blog series, we discuss how to understand your energy bill. This guide is for customers of Pacific Power who have standard bills. If you have opted into Equal Pay or Time of Use billing programs, your bill may look a little different.

For customers of Portland General Electric, you can find your bill guide here. Stay tuned for guides on Oregon’s other major energy utilities coming to the CUB Blog soon!

How to View Your Pacific Power Bill

Many Pacific Power customers receive physical bills in the mail. If you are one of these, viewing your bill is as easy as opening an envelope.

If you receive your bill electronically, you can access your bill by logging into your Pacific Power account online at https://www.pacificpower.net/. Once logged in, select “Pay My Bill” to see your most recent bill. For past bills, select “Billing and Payment History” instead. Even if you receive your bill in the mail, you will also be able to view it online.

Anatomy of a Pacific Power Bill

Page 1: Your Account and Billing Information
The first section of your bill shows the charges from last month and new charges. For many customers, all they want to know is how much their bill is for the month.

The Previous Account Balance is the amount charged on your last bill. You can see how much you paid on your last bill with the Payments/Credits section. The New Charges section is the new amount for the current bill. You can see all payments Pacific Power received since the previous bill on the right side of the above example. The Current Account Balance is what is owed on the current bill, including any outstanding charges from past months. The due date for this bill and the total amount due is found on the top right corner of the bill.

Page 1 continued: Detailed Account Activity
If you want to look more deeply into the charges on your bill, a good place to start is the Detailed Account Activity section on the first page. These individual line items change depending on where you live, the type of billing you use, and if you have opted into additional programs. You can tell where you are receiving a credit if the line item has a minus sign (-) to the left of the dollar amount.

Note: For charges related to energy use, the amount of electricity you used will be measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). A typical Pacific Power household uses about 948 kWh of electricity per month, though amounts vary between households.

At the top of this section, you can see your meter number. Your meter is the device that tracks the amount of electricity you use at home. Pacific Power looks your meter each month, either remotely or in person, and tracks the meter reading numbers to determine how much energy to bill you for.

The schedule, or rate schedule, is specific to different types of customers. The schedule for residential customers is Schedule 4. Rate schedules lay out the prices utilities charge per unit (kwh) of electricity for a given household. You can see the electricity you used this month in the Amount Used This Month section. This will be the same as the difference between the current and previous meter readings.

To see all the charges that go into your electricity bill, you can find each line item in the New Charges section. Standard items in this section include:

• Basic Charge: Same amount each month ($9.50 for most residential customers), covers administrative costs like customer service and billing, and fixed costs like the cost of the meter. Most homes have “single phase” power, which describes how your home connects to the power grid.
• Delivery Charge: the cost of bringing the energy from power plants to your area and then to your home (building and maintaining equipment that moves electricity).
• Supply Energy Charge: The cost of Pacific Power’s generating electricity, including gas plants and renewable investments. For residential customers, there are two tiers (called blocks) of monthly energy use charges: the first 1,000 kWh (Block 1, what most residential customers pay) and anything over 1,000 kWh (Block 2).
• Public Purpose Charge: This charge is 3 percent of your energy charges, as required by the state. These dollars are dedicated to energy efficiency investments, weatherization projects for households with low incomes, support for targeted renewable energy investments, and school energy improvements.
• Low Income Assistance: A set $0.69 per month, as required by the state. These funds go to bill payment assistance programs that help households with low incomes who are struggling to pay their energy bills.
• Energy Conservation Charge: A charge required by the state that funds energy conservation measures, like energy efficiency or other cost-effective tools to reduce energy use.
• BPA Columbia River Benefits: The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) credit is applied to qualifying customers for all usage below 1,000 kwh each month to help with the cost of investing in hydroelectric resources.

Some cities or local governments also charge an additional tax or fee, like the “Lakeview City Utility Tax” in the example above. These additional charges vary depending on where you live.

Any charges that include “Adjustment” or “Adj” are changed annually based on Pacific Power’s costs from the previous year and are approved by the Public Utility Commission. These could include the cost of building a new renewable power plant, investments in energy efficiency, costs associated with natural disasters, or other expenses outside of a household’s energy charges. Because adjustments change every year, we will not go in depth into each possible example.

If there are charges on your bill you still do not understand, call Pacific Power customer service at 1-888-221-7070 to ask for an explanation of your adjustments. When talking to customer service, either ask for a full explanation of the charges or reference a specific line item on your bill.

Page 2: Updates and Additional Information from Pacific Power
The second page of your Pacific Power bill is largely for the company to share any upcoming changes or additional resources for customers. This is where you can find information on upcoming rate increases, bill payment information, and bill credit opportunities.

If you are receiving a physical bill, you can also fill out and return the tear-away section at the bottom of this page to update your mailing address or other contact information.

Still have questions about understanding your bill? Call Pacific Power customer service at 1-888-221-7070. Or contact CUB at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 503-227-1984 ext. 1.

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02/10/25  |  7 Comments  |  Utilities 101: Understanding Your Pacific Power Bill

Comments

• 1.Hi and thank you for this post. It is helpful however I am wondering about the supply energy blocks having a “For 25 Days” section and a “For 8 Days” section. I live in a 1200sf house with one person and her child half the week and our bill is 220$!! Last month it was 170$! I know inflation is a thing and it is also winter but it seems sooo high! It says that our meter reading this month was 33587 and the kwh use was 2047. Could our meter possibly be malfunctioning? Or does this not seem like a high bill? How is the average family using less than 1000kwh and we are using over 2000kwh?! My thermostat is usually at 66 now and 64-63 at night. Thanks for any information.

  Lilah | February 2022

• 2.Hi Lilah. We’re glad that you enjoyed this post!
  
  The Supply Energy Charges For residential customers, there are two tiers, called blocks, of monthly energy use charges: the first 1,000 kWh (Block 1) and anything over 1,000 kWh (Block 2). It sounds like it took you 25 days to reach 1,000 kWh, so that is charged at the lower amount for Block 1. The next 8 days is charged slightly higher at Block 2 since it’s everything over 1,000 kWh.
  
  To your second question, while that bill is high for the number of people and size of your home it’s not totally unreasonable for the winter. Especially if you have electric baseboard heaters, keeping your home at 63-66 degrees can take a lot of energy! There are definitely a lot of ways for you to lower your bills, though. You can find some resources from this past CUB blog: https://oregoncub.org/news/blog/weatherization-bill-assistance-and-other-home-heating-tips-for-a-covid-19-winter/2273/
  

  Charlotte Shuff | February 2022

• 3.What is the "system benefits charge"?

  Lawrence McDonough | January 2023

• 4.Hello so I’m trying to figure out if it’s just me or does everyone feel/see that they are basically charging us twice for the same electricity. You have the device charge and then you have the supply energy charge. They say one is for “Generating” the electricity and the other is for “Delivering” it, which to me is ridiculous because it’s not like they’re putting it on a truck and driving it to me. So Legally how can they get away with charging us twice. We don’t go buy a whopper and have them charge me for the meat, bread and etc and then charge me again to put it all together. They don’t they just charge you for the whopper

  Erick Byers Sr. | January 2025

• 5.Hey Erick,
  
  Having the charges separated into generation and delivery is confusing but isn't an overcharge! The separate line items for "generation" and "delivery" are breakdowns of separate costs, not the same thing twice. It really is like if your whopper receipt was broken down into the "bun charge" and the "patty charge" -- both add up to a burger... but the way they'd list the line item costs is just a little clunky. I'd encourage you to reach out to the Oregon Public Utility Commission to tell them that utility bills should be easier to read! https://www.oregon.gov/puc/about-us/Pages/Contact-Us.aspx

  Charlotte Shuff | February 2025

• 6.I have a relatively new 17sft house with electric heating (HVAC): and I have solar panels: I keep the thermostat between 68 and 70,. For the past year or two my bills have NEVER been over $14.98 which I believe was not for electricity but just taxes etc. The bill I just received in Feb 2025 was for $69.00 The bill also mentioned something about B P A Columbia Benefits which I had never seen before. I looked it up and it might represent a slight benefit if you go over 1000 KwH which I did one month. It also had a different configuration (columns of numbers) on the bill which the old bills did NOT have. Next Door is also flooded of late with people crying over doubling of bills. Seems rates were raised. https://www.pacificpower.net/about/newsroom/news-releases/file-2025-oregon-rate-proposals.html
  
  

  Lee Lull | February 2025

• 7.Hello, about the delivery and supply charges, which Are charging us twice. Electricity is everywhere, there is a nice little power station about 2 miles from my house. I can see being charged for the electricity I use, but also being charged basically the same amount to get the electricity to me? And every home in my town is being charged this much also? Our bills are doubled. I could order batteries from China to power my house and the delivery charge would be just a fraction of my battery cost. It's electricity, its function is to travel and energize things. So, where is my power coming from that the delivery charge is just as much as the product I'm buying? Also, it isn't fair to be charged extra for 'high demand'. And one more thing, I can't wait until Amazon offers power, I'm a prime member so my delivery is free, Ha!!!

  Jackie | April 2025

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