PacifiCorp

PacifiCorp is an electric power company in the western United States.

"Pacific Power & Light Company" redirects here. For the video game company, see Pacific Coast Power & Light.
PacifiCorp
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryElectric power
Founded1910 (1910)[1]
HeadquartersLloyd Center Tower
Portland, Oregon, U.S.
Area served
Key people
  • William J. Fehrman (Chair and CEO, PacifiCorp)
  • Stefan Bird (President and CEO, Pacific Power)
  • Gary Hoogeveen (President and CEO, Rocky Mountain Power)
Owners
Number of employees
5,700[2]
ParentBerkshire Hathaway Energy
Subsidiaries
  • Pacific Power
  • Rocky Mountain Power
Footnotes / references
Area Served[3]

PacifiCorp has two business units:

  1. Pacific Power, a regulated electric utility with service territory throughout Oregon, northern California, and southeastern Washington.
  2. Rocky Mountain Power, a regulated electric utility with service territory throughout Utah, Wyoming, and southeastern Idaho.

PacifiCorp operates one of the largest privately held transmission systems in the U.S. within the western Energy Imbalance Market.[4]

Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power combined serve over 1.6 million residential customers, 202,000 commercial customers, and 37,000 industrial and irrigation customers - for a total of approximately 1,813,000 customers. The service area is 143,000 square miles (370,000 km2). The company owns and maintain 16,500 miles (26,600 km) of long distance transmission lines, 64,000 miles (103,000 km) of distribution lines, and 900 substations.

History

Pacific Power & Light was formed in 1910 from the merger of several financially troubled utilities in Oregon and Washington to form the Pacific Power & Light Company. It gradually expanded its reach to include most of Oregon, as well as portions of California, Washington and Wyoming. In 1984, it reorganized itself as a holding company, PacifiCorp, headquartered in Portland with Pacific Power as its main subsidiary.

Utah Power and Light (UP&L) was organized on 6 September 1912 from the merger of four electric companies in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming and was a Salt Lake City subsidiary of a large holding company, Electric Bond and Share Company (EBASCO) of New York. Within four years of its organization, UP&L had purchased twenty-seven other electric companies in the general Utah area, and eventually absorbed more than one hundred thirty. In 1881, one of those companies had made Salt Lake City the fifth city in the world with central station electricity.

In 1954, Pacific Power & Light merged with the Mountain States Power Company, essentially doubling the company's service area. In 1961, the company purchased the California Oregon Power Company, extending its service into southern Oregon and northern California.[5]

In 1977, PacifiCorp spun off its coal mining interests into a mining company known as NERCO, which was eventually listed on the New York Stock Exchange and ranked as high as 353 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest American companies. Through its majority interest in NERCO, PacifiCorp was involved in the mining of coal, oil, natural gas, gold, silver, and uranium. PacifiCorp still owned 82% of NERCO in 1993, when it was acquired by the mining giant Rio Tinto Group.[6]

In 1987, PacifiCorp acquired Utah Power & Light.[7] After the merger with regulator approval on January 9, 1989, Pacific Power and Utah Power operated as divisions of PacifiCorp.

In 2001, PacifiCorp was purchased by Scottish Power.[8] Since 2006, PacifiCorp has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy (formerly MidAmerican), itself an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway.

In a July 2006 reorganization, Pacific Power's territory in central and eastern Wyoming was merged with the Utah Power territory to form Rocky Mountain Power.[9]

In September 2021, PacifiCorp presented a plan to keep 3 out of 22 coal power plants operational beyond 2040 and to source 56% of its yearly consumption with renewable energy by 2040.[10]

Operations

PacifiCorp owns, maintains and operates generation assets and manages the commercial and trading operations of the company. PacifiCorp owns 68 generating plants with a capacity of 9,140 megawatts. 70.6% of the generation is from thermal sources (i.e., coal or natural gas), 6.7% from hydroelectric sources, and 0.2% from renewable sources. 22.5% of PacifiCorp's generation is purchased from other suppliers or under contracts.

Generation resources

In these tables of generation properties owned or partially-owned by PacifiCorp, total capacity is 10,556MW. Of this, 56% is coal, 24% is natural gas, 10% is hydroelectric, and 10% is renewable.

Major generation facilities include:

Thermal generation (Fossil fueled)
Plant Name Location Fuel Net Capacity (MW) Online Date
Jim Bridger (Two-thirds owner) Point of Rocks, WY Coal 1,413.4
Hunter Castle Dale, Utah Coal 1,112.4 1977
Huntington Huntington, Utah Coal 895.0 1973
Dave Johnston Wyoming Coal 762.0
Naughton Kemmerer, Wyoming Coal 357.0
Naughton Kemmerer, Wyoming Natural Gas 247.0
Lake Side Lindon, Utah Natural Gas 1,203.0 2007/2014
Currant Creek Mona, Utah Natural Gas 540.0
Hermiston Hermiston, Oregon Natural Gas 540.0
Chehalis Chehalis, Washington Natural Gas 540.0
Cholla Joseph City, Arizona Coal 380.0
Gadsby Salt Lake City, Utah Natural Gas 355.0
Wyodak Wyoming Coal 268.0
Craig (partial owner) Craig, Colorado Coal 165.0
Colstrip (partial owner) Colstrip, Montana Coal 148.0
Hayden (partial owner) Colorado Coal 78.1
Total Coal 5,579
Total Gas 3,265
TOTAL 8,844

Hydroelectric generation
Name Net Capacity (MW)
Lewis River 578.2
North Umpqua River 199.9
Klamath River Hydroelectric Project 163.8
Bear River 103.9
Prospect (Rogue River) 36.0
(30 minor projects) 78.3
TOTAL 1160

Renewable generation
Name Type Net Capacity (MW)
Leaning Juniper I Wind 100.5
Wolverine Creek Wind 64.5
Rock River I Wind 50.0
Combine Hills Wind 41.0
Foote Creek Wind 41.1
Blundell Geothermal 33.0
Goodnoe Hills Wind 94
Marengo I Wind 156
Marengo II Wind 78
Glenrock Wind 138
Seven Mile Hill Wind 99
Seven Mile Hill II Wind 19.5
Rolling Hills Wind 99
Glenrock III Wind 39
High Plains Wind 99
McFadden Ridge Wind 28.8
Dunlap Wind 111
Black Cap Solar 2
Cedar Springs II Wind 200
Ekola Flats Wind 250.9
TB Flats I Wind 250
TB Flats II Wind 250
Total Wind 2,209.6
Total Solar 2
Total Geothermal 33
TOTAL Renewable 2,244.6

Coal mining

PacifiCorp also owns and operates several captive coal mines located at or very near some of its generation plants. In Wyoming, PacifiCorp operates and has partial interest in Jim Bridger Mine and owns the Dave Johnston Mine, which is in final reclamation. The company also owned and operated the Deer Creek Mine in Utah, near the Huntington Plant but closed it in 2015 and has a partial interest in the Trapper Mine in Colorado.

Electric vehicles

Calling it a "new era of utility involvement in transportation electrification," the Portland Business Journal in 2018 described PacifiCorp's electric vehicle promotion program as a plan that promises new electric vehicle charging sites, outreach and education efforts. The program was spawn from legislation passed in 2016 that called for more renewable energy from the state's utility companies.[11]

Customers

As of May 1, 2007, Rocky Mountain Power serves approximately 758,000 customers in Utah, 129,000 customers in Idaho, and 67,000 customers in Wyoming.

Net metering

In November 2017, Rocky Mountain Power made a deal with Utah's utility authorities to phase out net metering. The program was paying customers who generated their own electricity with rooftop solar panels the residential rate for their excess energy that got sent back into the energy grid. As of August 2018, new rooftop solar installations were down 23 percent, likely due to the cancellation of the net metering program. New solar customers are paid by a transitional program that pays slightly less than the residential rate until 2033. People who installed solar panels prior to November 2017 are grandfathered at the previous rates until 2035.[12]

Organization

PacifiCorp is headquartered in the Lloyd Center Tower[13] at 825 N.E. Multnomah Street, Portland, Oregon, in the Lloyd District. Pacific Power is also headquartered in the same building. Rocky Mountain Power is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Pacific Power

Pacific Power serves customers in Washington, Oregon and California. Major cities served include:

As of December 31, 2009, Pacific Power serves 555,070 customers in Oregon, 126,665 customers in Washington, and 45,148 customers in California.[14]

Rocky Mountain Power

Rocky Mountain Power serves customers in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.

Major cities served include:

Idaho

Ammon, Lava Hot Springs, Malad City, Montpelier, Preston, Rigby, Rexburg, Saint Anthony, Shelley

Utah

Rocky Mountain Power serves most major cities in Utah, with the following exceptions:

Bountiful, Kaysville, Lehi, Logan, Provo, Murray, Monroe, Monticello, Springville, St. George

Wyoming

Buffalo, Casper, Cody, Douglas, Evanston, Green River, Kemmerer, Lander, Laramie, Rawlins, Riverton, Rock Springs, Thermopolis

References and sources
  1. "Company Overview". Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  2. "Company Quick Facts". Archived from the original on 2018-11-20. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  3. About Us pacificorp.com
  4. "California ISO - EIMRedirect".
  5. "Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions". Answers.com.
  6. "Rio Tinto timeline". Archived from the original on 19 December 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  7. Times, Richard W. Stevenson and Special To the New York (14 August 1987). "Pacificorp, Utah Power To Merge". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  8. Street Journal, Kathryn Kranhold and Steven LipinStaff Reporters of The Wall (1998-12-07). "Scottish Power Agrees to Buy PacifiCorp In a Stock Deal Valued at $7.8 Billion". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  9. Electrical Development in Utah Archived 2008-05-08 at the Wayback Machine
  10. PacifiCorp (2021-09-01). "2021 Integrated Resource Plan" (PDF). Figure 9.40 – 2021 IRP Preferred Portfolio Coal Retirements/Gas Conversions; Figure 9.45 – Projected Energy Mix with Preferred Portfolio Resources.
  11. Pete Danko (6 March 2018). "PacifiCorp OK'd to build EV charging stations as part of $4.6M transportation plan". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  12. "The number of Utahns installing solar power has dropped 23 percent since utility changed the way customers are paid". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2018-08-30.
  13. Culverwell, Wendy (August 24, 2007). "Fresh off some big moves, Integra signs large lease". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
  14. "Pacific Power Quick Facts". Retrieved 2010-05-31.
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