Pacific Power’s Vine Street substation in Albany, photographed one day in October 2022.
Pacific Power last week gave us a foretaste of what’s in store in coming years if Oregon continues its drive to make electricity more expensive and the power supply less reliable.
The utility sent customers in Albany and elsewhere an emailed notice as the nighttime temperature was forecast to dip below freezing “over the weekend and into Martin Luther King Jr. Day.”
The company said the advice was intended to help customers “to conserve energy to help keep bills low.”
One reason the price of electricity has shot up in the last couple of years is that Pacific Power is working to comply with the Oregon “Climate Protection Program.” The goal of the program is to phase out energy production from coal and gas and to rely on renewable sources instead.
This requires enormous investments in not just new solar and wind-powered energy plants but also in transmission lines, not to mention securing backup sources for the times that renewables are not available.
If this process is continued and eventually completed, electric bills will have to keep rising faster than inflation.
And when it gets cold in the winter and there’s no wind or sunlight — like on cold winter days and nights — the power companies may have to limit the the amount of demand on their systems. That means intentional blackouts.
I just came across an explanation of this in the United Kingdom, where something similar took place on Jan. 8. It’s an interview of an energy expert on a program called “Unherd,” and you can find it here.
In Oregon, consumers would like to be assured there’s plenty of capacity in the energy supply system for when we need it to keep from freezing to death, and that people can afford the price.
We don’t want to be told to turn the heat down when it’s cold. (hh)
Hey makes no sense some guy was just becoming president today – said we would all be great again was he talking about something else?
Really some guy he was our president already and he did amazing things. People like you let Bidens handler’s rob us blind shame on you
What kind of weirdo alternate universe do you come from?
The FELON and Chief accomplished very few things the first go around. Tax cuts for billionaires and incitement of a violent mob. Yeah, J6. And now he issues pardons to those clowns.
So much for LAW and Order!
Turn the heat DOWN doesn’t mean you have to turn it off and freeze to death. My hubby and I have adapted to 65 during the day and 60 at night. Slippers, sweaters and blankets are always close by. Western Oregon winters are relatively mild so I think we can all be grateful for that. And grateful that officials are working to protect our fragile environment.
You mean those same officials that line their pockets with everyone’s tax money money, and won’t ever do what they are telling us we need to do? Your crazy if you think they are doing this for the publics benefit.
A few years ago, PGE gave out a severance package of $500,000/year.
So, any rate hikes are paying part of that.
It’s called common sense. When the temp outside is really low, turn down the heat a few degrees so the furnace doesn’t work so hard and save money. If you “have money to burn”, go ahead and turn it up!
Oregon has more renewable power than probably all the other states but we continue to waste money on green energy even though Oregon is carbon neutral or better. The lying by Democrats that hydropower, the best renewable power source available, is not renewable power according to the State of Oregon is ludicrous.
Wrong.
https://www.fool.com/research/renewable-energy-by-state/#:~:text=Texas%20produces%20the%20most%20renewable,%2Dhours)%20of%20any%20state.
If you look/read closely that report does not include water power as renewable. I still can’t figure out why water power is not renewable. I dump my rain gauge and it refills to be emptied again.
You’re right. The Federal Government does include hydropower in the power production measurements. For others I guess it’s because hydropower has been used for well over 100 years, and is part of the “base load”, along with oil and natural gas.
“Renewable” really only came into use 30 or so years ago. So when people talk about renewables they are differentiating between CO2 production from burning and other sources like wind, solar, tidal etc. that don’t produce CO2 as an integral part of the power production loop.
I don’t think I got an e-mail from PP&L.
Well, you wouldn’t because your on Pacific Power if you live in Albany.
Pacific Power is PP&L. PP&L is Pacific Power and Light. I’m a 5th generation Oregonian. What out-of-state rock did you crawl out from under?
Unwelcome advice was the A-town city council making our power bills much more expensive by their downtown pet project. Um Hello!!!!!
Very untimely Hasso, MAGA(t)
Yes agree
“And when it gets cold in the winter and there’s no wind or sunlight — like on cold winter days and nights — the power companies may have to limit the the amount of demand on their systems. That means intentional blackouts.”
With the digital power meters, the Electric Company/Government has the ability to decide exactly “who” gets intentionally blacked out.
Just exactly “what” is this so called “backup”? Ginormous banks of toxic batteries? HOW many DAYS “backup” will they provide in case of natural disaster such as a forest fire, wind storm or ??? Windstorms can down power lines that “charge” you backup. Major fires can block out a lot of solar.
As kind of a hobby, I monitor the solar output at the Corvallis airport. https://www.weather.gov/wrh/timeseries?site=CRVO
I seen nice summer days where apparently, the Air National Guard was having exercises and there were a lot more contrails in the sky than usual. The solar output was noticeably decreased over similar days before/after. Why don’t they ban contrails?
The poorest people will get the blackouts.
I heat (and cool) my home electrically with solar power. I keep it at 72 year round.
“And when it gets cold in the winter and there’s no wind or sunlight — like on cold winter days and nights — the power companies may have to limit the the amount of demand on their systems. That means intentional blackouts.”
Until a bunch of folks freeze to death and then what? Or someone brings their grill inside or uses a propane heater and someone dies.
The mold remediators are jumping with joy!
Because turning it down works so well with small children. So when they’re freezing their gremlins off you finally turn on the heat or wash some pee blankets at- oh yes work hours? Yes let’s keep wracking up the bill for a single mother of two. We all know parents can afford to wash things during the hours of 8am and 10am on week days! My kids and I are literally huddled in a room every night for a whopping 400$ bill for the month of December. Dont know how ill pay January. I imagine itll be higher. Make it make sense.
Called ppl why my bill is higher this year then last. Even though I used less power. The answer was the increase in the power raises. Ten % and then 15 %. I paid big bucks for extra insolation ,calking windows ,door seals,etc. The ppl customer service lady said it’s the increases of the power companies. My installer said you can spend all that money but you can’t get ahead of the power company other then dying
“One reason the price of electricity has shot up in the last couple of years is that Pacific Power is working to comply with the Oregon “Climate Protection Program.” ”
Another BIGGER reason is the money Pacific Power has to pay for being responsible for major fires:
“Pacific Power reaches settlement with 403 plaintiffs related to the 2020 Labor Day Fires. PORTLAND, Ore. — Pacific Power reached a $178 million settlement with 403 plaintiffs, in which the vast majority of plaintiffs opted out of James class action litigation. Jun 3, 2024”
Maybe Pacific power should stop causing fires with negligence then?
I do what I can to reduce my usage by covering my slider and windows with bubble wrap and plastic over that. It helps insulate and can’t believe that no one has commented on this as it’s up to each one of us to do what we have control over.
I seem to recall that when the legislature adopted the Climate Protection Program, we were assured by the governor and utilities that the cost of this program would not increase rates by more than 3%, and if it did the utilities did not have to comply. Well, it’s pretty obvious that the 3% threshold has been eclipsed significantly, as such why does the PUC not put a stop to it? The utilities don’t want to stop the conversion to renewables because it builds their rate base upon which they earn their profits. There are not concerned at all about the effect on customers. It’s time for the PUC to do their job and stop the renewables madness before only the 1% can afford electricity.
Perhaps it is finally time to form a PUD (People’s Utility District) and operate a utility run by the customers.
Be thankful you live in western Oregon. This morning in Grand Forks, North Dakota it was a blistering 11 below zero! After a three day weekend and lowered thermostats offices were still so cold that employees were still wearing their coats until it warmed up enough to be comfortable with a heavy sweater.
Oh it’s much better now only 8 below.
Rolling blackouts coming California style following the California voters and California regulations. The extreme left are absolutely retarded.
Reply to “Same”
The new guy gives state governments the power to run (or ruin) their own state with climate “control” (key word).
Being in a blue state has a more literal meaning for people in the winter when its cold! So the need to bundle up in the winter will be our future here, unless we decide as a whole that we want something different. This isn’t Pacific Powers choice, it’s ours.
Pacific Power also put out information a few months ago that they would do away with hydro power to save fish. Does that mean removing dams, which is an idiot way to save fish, and use wind to kill birds? Some environmentalists have tunnel vision regarding saving fish. They don’t realize that dams save fish by releasing water that they captured in winter months to release to keep the river water higher and cooler in summer months to actually save fish in our rivers. Look what Albany had to do lower the temp in the river because the wastewater plant discharge was too warm. There are many streams feeding our rivers where fish can spawn without removing dams. Dams supply summer recreation and flood control also. Lowering the dam in Sweet Home did more damage then it helped with cities downstream using more chemicals to treat the water to make it safe that ended up back in the river.
Soon it will just be cheaper for me to run a diesel generator 24/7 …but the geniuses in Salem will probably make that illegal too, for our own good.
Oregons climate protection programs are a joke and we will continue pay for democrat and special interest crap that doesn’t do anything except inflated costs and prices, and Federal subsidies and money has just ended so someone should let them know the climate lies and BS is over
Psshaw….banning oil, natural gas, and hydropower are pissant solutions when it comes to mitigating global warming and achieving ecological sustainability.
Oregon needs to take aim at the elephant in the room – population control.
Having kids is just bad for the planet. They are one of the biggest contributors to an individual’s carbon footprint.
So, progressives, please get ahead of the curve – stop having kids now.
You’ll feel better about yourself when the state announces its “kid approval” mandate.
Gordon: I know you are being smart-ass and cutesy by saying to “progressives” not to have kids. But, you are right about the population. There are too many people on this planet; both progressives and Trumpers. Thanks for reminding us.
Hydro electric is the cleanest most abundant energy we got in the nw. this is all a scam. Thinking you can change the weather by paying taxes… hydro power is gwp neutral but they blow up dams and pat eachother on the back .it’s all bs to control and pinch people for everything they got. they want to stifle humanity’s progress in the name of saving the earth because they worship satin [earth’s lord] and death. And the ones that don’t are just usefull idiots that think they know what’s best have drank the kool-aid and truly believe the woke conscience scam that is global warming … climate has been changing since time began people have very little to do with it. what they do have to do with it is bogus geoengineering done to prop of the false narrative of man made climate change. Fact is life does better with higher co2 and warmer temps it’s what plants breath when plants grow better people eat better and the cycle continues. Truth is if you reduce co2 to low plants will die off followed by humans. Seems like stuff in a greenhouse lives pretty good all year around and that’s why they don’t want it. Sealevel will not rise either because water density changes when phase changes it will stay the same even if all the ice melts. People are stupid. If you are cold buy a small diesel heater off temu. Fuel is going to be cheap for at least 4 years .
“Worship Satan, people are stupid, global warming is a hoax, the earth needs more Co2”!!!! Hasso…are you not feeling well? It seems you will print anything; are you ill?
On the other hand, I love the handles people are using–such as Bobsmyuncle and Notyourbusiness. Love those! But, Shawn, we all know what kma stands for. Same to you!!
Anyway, Hasso, hope you get to feeling better.