Can legislators shield consumers from the cost of powering data centers in Oregon?

Beat Check with The Oregonian

Oregon’s residential electricity rates have gone up nearly 50% in the Portland area in just the past four years. Those increases have primarily been driven by the rising costs to buy power from the open energy market. But there’s growing concern that the rapid expansion of power-hungry data centers could significantly drive up residential power bills in the coming years.

Already, data centers consume more than 10% of all Oregon’s electricity. Power planners expect tech companies’ power use will double by the end of the decade, or perhaps quadruple.

Mike Rogoway, who reports on data centers for The Oregonian/OregonLive, talked on Beat Check podcast about a new proposal state lawmakers are crafting for the new legislative session that would give Oregon regulators authority to insulate residential customers from the costs associated with supplying data centers.

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