(PORTLAND, OR) - - Oregon’s two major investor-owned electric utilities plan to put more than $8 million earned from the state’s Clean Fuels Program into transportation electrification programs according to budgets submitted to state regulators this week.
Public Utility Commission staff, in a report to commissioners, said the 2021 spending plans from Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp are in line with a 2018 PUC directive for use of the funds. That order called for putting the money toward helping the state meet its transportation electrification goals, with an emphasis on programs that benefit residential customers and traditionally underserved communities.
Charging EVs in the state delivers credits under the Clean Fuels Program, which rates transportation fuels on carbon intensity, a measure of the lifecycle emissions for a given amount of energy produced.
Fuel providers are required to meet a tightening standard for gasoline and diesel and their substitutes. Credits are generated from fuels that come in under the carbon intensity standard, including electricity when used to power vehicles. Providers who don't meet the standard need to buy credits to be in compliance with the program.
While charging-station owners and network operators can register as their own credit generators, credits from widely scattered and difficult-to-track residential charging go to the electricity providers, including PGE and PacifiCorp. They earn cash from the sale of those credits.
Both utilities plan to use the money to make investments in charging infrastructure in 2021, but their big expenditures will be on grant programs.
PGE said it will put $3.75 million of about $6.5 million into its Drive Change Fund. The utility wants half the fund dollars to go to organizations led by people who are Black or Indigenous, or people of color. Electric school buses are a big focus too — PGE said it would carve out $1.5 million from the fund to help districts and school bus fleet operators buy electric buses and charging infrastructure.
That charging infrastructure will have demand-response capability, PGE said, which means the utility will be able to use the batteries of plugged-in buses to help meet peak system demand. That’s an example of how electric vehicles can provide valuable grid benefits, rather than create an expensive burden.
PacifiCorp forecasts having less money to work with, about $1.5 million. That’s because it serves fewer customers, and because more are outside Portland in areas were EV penetration is lower. The utility plans to spend about $1 million on grants, about two-thirds directly with a focus on traditionally underserved communities. The other third would help organizations meet matching-fund requirements for other grant programs, such as ones run by the federal government.
The Clean Fuels Program currently targets a 10 percent improvement in transportation fuel carbon intensity by 2025. But a March climate order by Gov. Kate Brown called for extending the program to 2035, with a 25 percent target. The Department of Environmental Quality is gearing up for rulemaking to implement that order.
Separately, the electric utilities are pursuing transportation electrification plans financed by ratepayers under a 2016 law that called for such investments, which are required to benefit all utility customers.
