PGE President/CEO Speaks to Large Chamber Crowd

By PATRICK JOHNSON
Wilsonville Spokesman

Regional focus.

It’s the tenor of two recent luncheons sponsored by the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce. Last month, noted economist John Mitchell told a multi-chamber group about where our economy may be headed. This past week, Portland General Electric CEO Jim Piro spoke to the same multi-chamber group about the challenges facing his utility.

Piro spoke during the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce’s Oct. 13 luncheon series sponsored by the Stafford Woods Conference Center, Hayden’s Lakefront Grill and Fred Meyer. The group of about 80 people met at Stafford Woods. Chamber members from Wilsonville, Tualatin, West Linn, Sherwood, Lake Oswego and Tigard chambers were invited.

Economic development depends on energy availability and costs, said Piro. To help rebound the economy his company is looking at ways to provide low-cost power to the Willamette Valley.

He said that a six-city region, which includes Wilsonville, West Linn, Lake Oswego, Tigard, Tualatin and Sherwood, has 90,000 customers and makes up 11-percent of PGE’s total customer base.

There has been a $45 million investment in infrastructure in this region, increasing capacity by 18 percent. Over the past five years, PGE’s entire system has been expanded by $775 million worth of projects.

“It’s one of the fastest growing areas in our service area,” Piro said. “Just in terms of large customers ... this area has grown by 18 percent.”

Piro said this growth creates challenges for his company. He expects the long-term retail load to grow more than 45 percent by 2030. During that time, several long-term power purchase contracts also will expire, driving the need for additional resources.

He hopes that through efficiency PGE can reduce the load.. To do so, however, the next 20 years will have to reveal new energy sources to meet the demand. “We do not have enough resources to meet our customer’s loads,” Piro said. “Today we go to the marketplace and buy that energy, but over time that surplus is going away. We cannot depend on the markets to provide those resources. We do not have a very vibrant power business in the west.”

Existing sources of energy for PGE include coal and natural gas plants, which make up the bulk of the energy production. Hydroelectric power makes up a smaller segment of the power, and renewable power sources, primarily wind, make up about 15-percent of the power generated. Piro said the goal is to reach 25 percent by 2025.

PGE has outlined several ways to try to help meet the power needs of his customers by 2015. Those include creating more energy efficiency measures, new renewable resources, efficient natural gas-fired generation and demand-side resources.
“Demand-side resources include time of day pricing or controls that we are working on,” Piro said.

He also said PGE will be putting environmental controls on its coal-powered Boardman plant in eastern Oregon. It has a proposal for a $750 million transmission line project which will connect the Boardman plant to the Salem area.

“Energy efficiency is really the cheapest resource we can acquire,” Piro said. “It comes from the customers changing the technologies in their home, changing to energy efficient lighting, using variable speed drives in business areas.”

Piro said he plans 20 megawatts annually saved through energy efficiency gains. PGE uses programs like “Save more, matter more” which recognizes businesses that save energy and also pledge to implement energy efficiency measures. “The most expensive load to service is the peak load,” Piro said. “The cold winter day or hot summer day where the air conditions are on or the heaters are on, that’s very expensive for us to serve.

For residential customers, Piro said PGE is looking at different approaches, including time-of-day pricing to give people incentive to not use power during peak times, and discounts for off-peak usage. He also suggested using “smart” appliances that react to heavy load periods and switch off.

“For example, hot water heaters. Electric water heaters don’t have to run at the peak hour,” he said. “They can run before that and then recharge after that. We are trying to find ways to set up a smart grid.”

PGE Website