Portland’s largest electric company is proposing to raise its residential rates by nearly 4% next summer.

That means an average household could see its electric utility bill increase by $8.33 a month if Oregon utility regulators approve the request.

The company’s proposed 3.9% increase comes after its residential customers’ rates already increased this year.

As Oregon’s energy needs are changing and more electricity is being used, PGE spokesperson Drew Hanson said the company is investing in new technology to help strengthen the grid.

“The rate case we are proposing next week supports the ongoing and year-round projects and large investments and programs that really help strengthen and backstop the reliability of the energy that we all use,” Hanson said.

Some of that work includes the West Side Upgrade Projects that support growing energy needs the company is seeing in the Sherwood, Tigard and Tualatin region all the way down to Wilsonville, he said.

“There’s a number of projects such as new substations, rebuilding transmission lines and creating more capacity so more energy can flow to those communities that are really growing around the Portland metro area,” he said.

Other projects include upgrading the more than 100-year-old South Milliken transmission lines that run from Boring through Estacada and into Southeast Portland.

“Some of that area kind of on the east side is in a high fire risk area, so it’s replacing those old lattice towers with new modern poles, modern technology on those poles, and it connects directly to our West Side hydro project as well,” Hanson said. “So once that is completed, we’ll be able to make sure those hydro facilities along the Clackamas River will continue to provide clean energy to PGE customers.”

Portland General Electric expects to submit its proposed rates to the Oregon Public Utility Commission next week.

The utility regulator will then review the request over the next ten months, which includes input from the public.

Data centers also see increase

Portland General Electric is the first utility to implement a landmark state law known as the POWER Act, which created a new classification for large load users like data centers.

Data centers use enormous amounts of energy to power their technology, like storage and cloud services. Because of that and the rapid growth of these facilities across the state, PGE residential and commercial customers were burdened with growth costs that resulted in higher utility bills.

PGE’s implementation of the POWER Act resulted in a nearly 30% increase for these large load users earlier this month. Those shifts resulted in a slight decrease, 1.3%, for residential customers.

The company is proposing a nearly 8% increase for customers like data centers, almost double the amount it’s proposing to increase for its residential customers.

But utility watchdog Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board spokesperson Charlotte Shuff said PGE’s rates are already higher than the national average and among the highest in Oregon’s major utilities.

“For many customers, PGE’s rates are not affordable, and this increase will only make it worse,” she said in an emailed statement.

Shuff said PGE customers have seen a nearly 50% increase between 2021 and 2025.

“Even though PGE has improved the assignment of costs to data centers, CUB continues to believe that PGE assigns too much of its overall costs to residential customers,” she said.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/31/portland-general-electric-utilities-rate-increase-oregon/