On March 12, 2025, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (Commission) issued an order finding that the Commission has the authority to require PacifiCorp to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for new generating resources, but declined to exercise that authority due to PacifiCorp’s stated intent to issue an RFP itself.
The Commission’s decision was the result of a lengthy process spanning two dockets. It began with PacifiCorp’s 2023 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) and Clean Energy Plan (CEP) designed to show a path to compliance with Oregon’s clean energy standard, House Bill 2021 (HB 2021). PacifiCorp’s original 2023 IRP and CEP showed that, based solely on traditional least-cost, least-risk planning, PacifiCorp would be very close to meeting its obligation to reduce Oregon-attributed greenhouse gas emissions 80% below baseline by 2030. The original IRP and CEP relied in significant part on an RFP that PacifiCorp had issued in 2022 to bring on significant amounts of new renewable and storage resources.
However, the dynamic shifted dramatically in April 2024 when PacifiCorp filed an update announcing that it was cancelling the 2022 RFP and backsliding on its prior plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. PacifiCorp’s updated plan showed the company would not achieve the required 80% greenhouse gas reduction, let alone HB 2021’s requirements of a 90% reduction by 2035 and 100% reduction by 2040.
Many stakeholders, including Commission Staff, Renewable Northwest, and Sierra Club argued to the Commission that PacifiCorp’s new plan did not demonstrate “continual progress” toward achieving HB 2021’s required emission reductions, as mandated by the law. These stakeholders also pointed out that HB 2021 imposes a parallel mandate on the Commission itself to “ensure” continual progress. Finally, the stakeholders argued that only by procuring clean resources could PacifiCorp make the required demonstration of continual progress.
In an August 2024 order – Order No. 24-297 – the Commission agreed that PacifiCorp had not demonstrated continual progress, and as a result it directed the opening of “a new docket intended to result in an order that PacifiCorp will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) by a date certain[.]” As a precursor to such an order, however, the Commission first decided to “adjudicate our legal authority to order PacifiCorp to issue an RFP, establish a date certain by which PacifiCorp must issue an RFP to market, and address the volume and nature of resources PacifiCorp seeks in the RFP.”
The Commission promptly opened a new contested case docket to address these issues. An initial scoping process resulted in a decision to adopt a phased schedule, with legal briefing in phase one and a possible evidentiary process in phase two. Among the intervenors, Renewable Northwest and the Northwest and Intermountain Power Producers Coalition (NIPPC) argued in briefs, among other things, that the Commission has the legal authority to order a utility to issue an RFP and to direct procurement of a specific volume of new generating resources. Renewable Northwest and NIPPC also argued that the Commission has the authority under its organic statute to issue penalties against a utility that fails to demonstrate continual progress as required by HB 2021. PacifiCorp and another intervenor, the Alliance of Western Energy Consumers, argued that the Commission lacks the authority to direct procurement.
The Commission set a date for oral argument and directed the parties to identify representatives to speak on each issue; the intervenors tapped Renewable Northwest to appear in favor of the Commission’s authority to issue an RFP. Following argument, the Commission issued Order No. 25-098, affirming the Commission’s authority under its organic statute and HB 2021 to direct a utility to initiate an RFP for new resources. The Commission did not answer the question of whether it could order a utility to actually procure a specific volume of resources, but it did affirm that it may impose penalties for noncompliance with HB 2021. In the end, the Commission determined that it did not need to exercise these powers because of PacifiCorp’s stated intention to run an RFP for new clean generating resources in 2025. Instead, the Commission indicated that further proceedings would ensue if PacifiCorp failed to issue an RFP by June 1, 2025.
On April 16, 2025, PacifiCorp made a new filing indicating its intent to release an RFP for new generating resources to market by the end of May.
Sanger Greene PC represented both Renewable Northwest (Max Greene) and NIPPC (Irion Sanger and Ellie Hardwick) in the Commission’s continual progress docket, UM 2345. Sanger Greene PC also represents Renewable Northwest as an intervenor in PacifiCorp’s appeal of Commission Order No. 24-297 before the Marion County Circuit Court.
Renewable Northwest is a member-based nonprofit advocacy organization with a mission to decarbonize the region by accelerating the transition to renewable electricity. NIPPC is a regional membership organization representing competitive power participants in the electricity sector in the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain region.
Disclaimer
These materials are intended to as informational and are not to be considered legal advice or legal opinion, nor do they create a lawyer-client relationship. Information included about previous case results does not assure a similar future result.
