Photo by Rian Dundon/Oregon Capital Chronicle
Public Utility Commission Requires Protections from Data Centers
By: Audrey Leonard, Staff Attorney
In Oregon, data centers enjoy tax breaks worth more than $450 million per year. Due to these incentives, data centers have flocked to the state, creating strain on our energy system and threatening to derail our region’s progress towards clean energy goals, salmon recovery, and clean water.
Washington County, OR, is home to multiple data center complexes served by Portland General Electric (PGE). In 2025, Columbia Riverkeeper intervened in a Public Utility Commission (PUC) docket to implement Oregon’s POWER Act for data centers in PGE territory. We intervened in the docket with a coalition of climate and energy advocates, represented by the Green Energy Institute.
Throughout months of testimony and briefing, our coalition made the case that data centers should pay their fair share of generation and transmission costs and presented detailed arguments for ways the PUC can protect ratepayers from the expenses and uncertainties of data centers. Our coalition worked alongside the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board to push for strong requirements and enforcement mechanisms. On the other side, data center interests advocated for less protections and less transparency.
Ultimately, the PUC agreed with climate and energy advocates!
In May 2026, the PUC issued an order specifying how Portland General Electric (PGE) must contract with data centers, including a variety of mechanisms that protect ratepayers from data centers’ costs. The PUC agreed with our arguments on nearly every issue, resulting in one of the most comprehensively protective outcomes from a public utility commission in the nation.
Highlights include:
- Data centers in PGE territory must not undermine the utility’s obligation to meet Oregon’s greenhouse gas emission reduction law, HB 2021.
- Data centers will pay 1-center per kilowatt-hour into a fund directed towards energy efficiency investments for low-income customers. This includes investments like repairs and local energy generation, like rooftop solar.
- PGE will make annual reports regarding data center electricity usage.
- Data centers must continue paying for power generation and transmission infrastructure built to serve data center demand for as long as that infrastructure is needed.
- Cost protections: Data centers must sign contracts with protective terms that include penalties for using too much energy, upfront deposits, minimum contract lengths, and penalty fees for exiting a contract early.
The docket had major public participation, thanks to advocates like you. The PUC received over 1,600 public comments—the second most on any issue since 1987! The public made it clear that regulating data centers is a priority, and the PUC listened.
There is an ongoing docket at the PUC regarding similar protections for PacifiCorp customers. The policies implemented by the PUC in this proceeding can serve as a template for other utility regulators across the nation.
Oregon’s POWER Act applies to Oregon’s investor-owned utilities, but does not cover consumer-owned utilities where most of the Columbia River adjacent data centers are sited or proposed. Columbia Riverkeeper will continue to advocate for data center regulations that uplift our region’s climate targets and protect clean water.
Read more at OPB.