Oregon PUC Closes the Record on Pacific Power's Data Center Tariff: No Posted Rate, a Contract for Each Site, a Nov. 13 Target

Administrative Law Judge Katharine Mapes closed the evidentiary record on Thursday in Docket UE 463, Pacific Power’s tariff for new data centers in Oregon, admitting the September 16 stipulation and every party’s testimony ^[1]. The Public Utility Commission of Oregon now has a settlement in front of it and a target date of November 13 for its order ^[2]. The threshold is 20 megawatts. None of the filings this column draws on says how much data center load will come in under it.

This is a state commission case under the 2025 POWER Act. The Commission already applied that law to Portland General Electric in UM 2377, in an order dated May 7, 2026 ^[9].

What the settlement would do

Pacific Power, the Oregon business name of PacifiCorp, filed Advice No. 25-015 on October 2, 2025, proposing a new Schedule 401 for large energy use facilities and asking for a January 1, 2026 start ^[3,4]. Amazon Data Services petitioned to suspend it, the Alliance of Western Energy Consumers moved to dismiss it for lacking a cost-of-service rate, and on December 16, 2025 the Commission opened an investigation and suspended the tariff ^[4]. With PacifiCorp’s agreement, the suspension now runs to December 31, 2026 ^[3].

The POWER Act, House Bill 3546, defines a large energy use facility as one that “uses or is able to use 20 megawatts or more” and is primarily engaged in the services under NAICS code 518210, which covers data processing and hosting ^[11]. It lets the Commission either allocate costs to the class or “directly assign” them to each customer ^[9,11].

The stipulation, signed by PacifiCorp, Commission staff, the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board and four environmental and community groups, takes the second road ^[4]. Its main terms:

• A contract for every site. A New LEUF must sign a LEUF Agreement to get service. The Commission gets 90 days to review a standard agreement and 180 days for a non-standard one, and either side can bring an unsigned agreement to the Commission if talks stall 180 days after the service study ^[4].
• Who counts as new. Any facility without a service contract before June 16, 2025, or one that needs $10 million or more in new transmission, distribution or generation after that date ^[4]. Sites with common ownership within 2,500 feet, or on the same substation, count as one ^[4].
• Term. Ten to 30 years, ramp included, with a $25,000 nonrefundable application fee and study costs charged to the customer ^[4].
• Already energized sites. A New LEUF that is already running may not exceed its highest measured peak as of the day the final order issues until its agreement is approved ^[4].

Who pays for the wires and the plants

Network upgrades are paid up front by the data center, with one exception ^[4]. A “Qualified Network Upgrade” is a facility of 230 kV or more on WECC’s critical path list where data centers make up less than 80% of PacifiCorp’s known need. There the customer pays its proportional share over the life of its contract ^[4].

The joint testimony works an example. A 1,000 MW upgrade with 400 MW of data center need and 200 MW of other need puts about 67% of the cost on the data center, paid over time. Cut the other need to 100 MW and the data center share hits 80%, the line no longer qualifies, and the data center pays the full 1,000 MW facility up front ^[5].

On supply, energy is billed hourly at the EDAM day-ahead market’s locational marginal price at a node both sides agree on ^[4]. Generation and storage are paid either through a monthly Reservation Charge on contract demand or by reimbursing the actual cost of resources the customer picks, plus a risk charge and a firming charge ^[4]. Any new resource PacifiCorp acquires to serve a New LEUF must be non-emitting, and a data center served from existing emitting plants is responsible for offsetting emissions so it does not shift HB 2021 compliance costs to others ^[4].

Then come the exit fee, which can include net book value, the remaining Reservation Charge and removal costs; collateral covering that fee, at PacifiCorp’s election, from customers without an A- credit rating or equivalent; and a 1 cent per kWh Community Energy Benefits Charge on facilities over 100 MW ^[4]. Existing data centers not on Schedule 401 get their own rate class in a filing due within 60 days after rates take effect in PacifiCorp’s rate case, UE 470 ^[4].

For comparison, Texas wrote its large-load terms into a single rule, which this column covered when it took effect October 8. Oregon’s version leaves the price to each contract.

Where the sides stand

The Data Center Coalition is the main objector. Its October 1 filing says the settlement “materially improves” PacifiCorp’s original proposal, then asks the Commission not to approve it as filed ^[6]. Its core argument is that the POWER Act did not repeal Oregon’s cost-of-service statutes, so a New LEUF should have “a transparent stated cost-of-service rate option” ^[6]. It also wants the exit fee capped at actual stranded-cost exposure and the transmission charges reconciled. Its own example is a 400 MW customer at a 90% load factor, which would pay about $31.5 million a year under the 1-cent charge ^[6].

The stipulating parties answer that Section 2(2)(B) of the Act plainly allows direct assignment, and they quote Rep. Pam Marsh’s committee testimony that the bill aims to emulate consumer-owned utilities that negotiate directly with data centers ^[9]. They say the exit fee lists the costs that may be recovered and is “not a formula” that sums them all. The coalition’s changes, they argue, would invoke the settlement’s withdrawal clause ^[9].

Amazon Data Services, which asked for the investigation in the first place, does not oppose the deal. It says its non-opposition “should not be construed as support” and depends on adoption without changes. It also ties its position to a clause leaving its own facilities to its separate complaint against PacifiCorp, UM 2410 ^[7]. NewSun Energy, which describes that complaint as alleging PacifiCorp failed to serve four data center campuses, objects to the clause barring any resource in a PacifiCorp procurement from serving a data center, and to the absence of study deadlines ^[8]. AWEC and Vitesse do not oppose the settlement ^[4].

The bench took up NewSun’s point. A bench request asked whether a resource bidding into a PGE request for proposals could serve a Pacific Power data center; the stipulating parties answered “No.” Asked how the deal guards against developers leaving Oregon procurements for data center work, they said that risk “cannot be entirely mitigated by the stipulation” ^[10].

What I’m watching

November 13: the order. Whether the Commission adopts the stipulation whole or adds the coalition’s stated-rate option, which the stipulating parties say would reopen the deal ^[2,9]. NewSun’s study-deadline request is the smaller change to watch ^[8]. If it adopts, PacifiCorp’s compliance filing is due November 24 ^[2].

January 1, 2027: the effective date. The schedule sets rates to take effect then, the day after the suspension ends ^[2,3]. The first LEUF Agreement filed for approval will be the first look at what a Pacific Power data center actually pays.