By
Natascha Smith, Energy Law Fellow
It’s an exciting time for electricity regulation in Oregon. Under
the direction of SB 978, which
was passed by the state legislature in 2017, the Oregon Public Utility
Commission (PUC) is engaging electricity stakeholders, including the general
public, to investigate how
developing industry trends, technologies, and policy drivers may impact the
existing electricity regulatory system. SB 978 does little to restrict
the scope of changes the PUC can consider in potentially reforming the
regulatory framework applied to electricity in Oregon. Now is the time to place
all options on the table and contemplate what changes will help Oregon meet its
current electricity goals while allowing room to adapt to changing technologies
and policy concerns.
On March 21, stakeholders attended a meeting convened by the
PUC in Salem to discuss the
state of Oregon’s electricity regulatory system. This was the second of six
meetings convened by the PUC, which will ultimately culminate with a report
from the PUC to the legislature later this year. At the March meeting, participants
were split into groups representing customers, generation and service providers, investor-owned
electric utilities, environmental concerns, equity
and environmental justice, and the PUC Staff. Each stakeholder
group in turn gave presentations responding to questions posed by the PUC about
how the current regulatory process worked for their group, what challenges they
saw, and what might be missing from the current regulatory structure. While all
groups agreed that the current system ensures Oregonians have access to safe
and reliable power, each group had unique thoughts on where the system has room
for improvement. The stakeholder groups went on to identify areas of consensus
and disagreement regarding the effectiveness of the current system at
addressing specific areas of concern, such as facilitating competition and
promoting environmental objectives.
Despite the technical jargon involved, this review of the
electricity regulatory system is a public process. The review calls on all
Oregonians to consider whether the current regulatory process achieves the
goals important to us, and if not, how we can effectively incentivize the
changes we want to see. The public can contribute to this process by attending
PUC meetings on SB 978 or by submitting
comments via email. If you’re simply interested in seeing how the
meetings are conducted or what ideas different stakeholder groups bring to the
table, the meetings are available to watch on the PUC
website.
