Legislation could impact energy costs, utility operations in Oregon

• The Oregon legislature is considering bills to make renewable energy more accessible and the power grid more resilient.
• One bill would allow homeowners to finance energy-efficient products through their power companies with no additional cost.

Bills that would make renewable energy technology a cost-neutral option for homeowners, make the electric grid more resilient by turning homes and electric cars into a virtual network of power plants and allow electric companies to self-insure are among those the state Oregon Legislature is considering in the 2026 session.

The slate of bills is nowhere near as transformative as the multiple laws passed in the 2025 legislative session, but this year’s proposed laws have the potential to make an enormous impact.

Investor-owned utilities in Oregon such as Portland General Electric, Pacific Corp and Northwest Natural receive exclusive territories in the state. In exchange, they’re regulated by the Oregon Public Utilities Commission.

These are the bills and how they would impact customers:

Senate Bill 1588 would require power companies to help consumers finance energy-efficient devices

Senate Bill 1588 would require electric companies to allow customers to buy things like electric heat pumps, energy storage systems and solar panels and pay for those items through a monthly charge on their bill. Those purchases would not increase the customer’s total bill.

That way, customers could purchase and use energy-efficient devices in their homes and not bear any additional costs. The mechanism would be similar to the way mobile carriers allow customers to purchase a new phone and pay the device off in installments.

“There’s still a cost gap that remains for too many Oregonians,” Claire Prihoda, policy manager of Climate Solutions, said during a public utilities commission meeting on Feb. 9.

Serena Campas, senior associate for policy at Rewiring America said utilities in other states have been operating similar programs for more than 15 years.

Most homeowners currently take out loans from separate companies to buy a solar power system or battery from a third party. They pay the loan at approximately the same rate they did when they were paying their full electric bill.

PGE opposes the bill and its lobbyist, Chloe Becker, said the utility is concerned about its obligations to set up the financing part of the program because it is not a lender.

Becker said that a $7,500 ductless heat pump could take 30 years for a homeowner to pay off.

“When we run the numbers using those parameters it raises questions for us about this model working in Oregon,” Becker said during a public utilities commission meeting Feb. 9.

Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, the chief sponsor of the bill, disputed the cost estimates and said it only mandates the power companies to submit proposals.

“Some of what was said is not in fact mandated at all,” Golden said.

Golden said loans for the energy efficient products would stay with the home when it is sold. That means the payment would follow the home and the next owner would still benefit from the energy savings.

“This is not consumer lending. I have heard some confusion about that. It is a utility rate tariff defining the service on terms that are just reasonable and fair determined by the public utility commission,” said Matt Flaherty, director of building decarbonization at Clean Energy Work.

The bill is next scheduled for a work session in the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment at 3 p.m. on Feb. 11.

Senate Bill 1582 would require utilities to develop virtual powerplants

Senate Bill 1582 would require investor-owned power companies to develop distributed power plant programs, also called virtual powerplants, through third-party companies.

Distributed power plants are networks of homes with solar power, batteries and electric cars that can put power back into the grid in times of high need, such as when temperatures are extremely high or low.

The owners of the homes are paid for participating in the programs.

Franco Albi, director of regional integration for Portland General Electric, said the company started developing such a so-called virtual power plant in 1999.

He said PGE has 230,000 customers and that the program produces as much power as the utility’s coal-burning plant in Boardman.

Albi said PGE already works with third-party aggregators in the programs and that the company opposes the bill because it’s essentially doing the same thing already without a law.

“We believe that the PUC is the right place to define the resource requirements,” Albi said. “That happens today and it’s through rulemaking, not statute and especially not statute rushed through a short session.”

Others argued that the pace investor–owned companies are establishing virtual power plants isn’t fast enough to meet projected need in Oregon.

“We need these higher adoption rates for economies of scale,” Sen. Courtney Neron Misslin, D-Wilsonville, a sponsor of the bill. “The third-party aggregators are the ones that allow this to build to an economy of scale.”

The Public Utility Commission in a letter warned that the bill could increase costs for customers because utility companies may need to increase their scale so third-party aggregators can participate.

Power companies, including PGE, have invested in building large-scale battery energy storage systems, which do the same thing. They are large scale and the company owns or leases those.

Marion County banned such systems in 2025.

The bill is scheduled for a work session in the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment at 3 p.m. on Feb. 11.

House Bill 4077 would allow public utilities to self-insure

House Bill 4077 would allow public utility companies to issue bonds in order to start a program to insure themselves.

It would require utilities to get approval by the public utility commission to do so.

Self-insurance is essentially a savings account for claims. A captive insurance program is a formal program that essentially does the same.

“This type of insurance can have several benefits,” said Jennifer Hill-Hart, the policy director for the Oregon Citizens Utility Board, a non-profit that advocates for energy affordability.

PacificCorp faces an estimated $8 billion in claims related to the 2020 wildfires in Oregon and California, according to estimates from parent company Berkshire Hathaway.

PGE voiced support for the bill.

“At PGE, we’ve seen our annual insurance premiums increase 180% in the last five years,” said Jay Tinker, a senior manager for the utility. “We are not alone in experiencing these increases and utilities as a sector are at risk of being unable to secure insurance coverage.”

The bill is scheduled for a committee work session at 8 a.m. on Feb. 12.

House Bill 4025 would allow rate increases in the winter

House Bill 4025 allows rate increases for public utilities other than electrical and natural gas companies to increase rates between Nov. 1 and March 31.

A law passed in the 2025 legislative session, House Bill 3179, prevented those companies from increasing rates during the winter months.

“After the bill passed, it was flagged that the way the law was written, it would apply to water utilities as well,” said State Rep. Nathan Sosa, D-Hillsboro, the bill’s sponsor.

The bill passed by a 51-7 vote on Feb. 10 by the House of Representatives and next advances to the Senate.

Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com