At the August 26, 2025 Public Meeting, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (the Oregon Commission) approved PacifiCorp’s 2025 Oregon situs Request for Proposals (RFP) with conditions in Docket No. UM 2383. The order approving the RFP was issued on August 29, 2025. At the August 28, 2025 Open Meeting, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (the Washington Commission) approved PacifiCorp’s 2025 Washington situs RFP with conditions in Docket No. UE-250460. The order approving the RFP was issued on September 2, 2025.
Several parties submitted comments on PacifiCorp’s RFPs, including the Northwest & Intermountain Power Producers Coalition (NIPPC), Renewable Northwest, the Oregon Commission Staff, the Washington Commission Staff, NewSun Energy, Oregon Solar + Storage Industries Association, Sierra Club, Green Energy Institute, and Form Energy.
Before approval of the RFPs, stakeholders made recommendations that PacifiCorp agreed to before the Public Meeting and Open Meeting. PacifiCorp removed the deliverability requirements to the respective states and removed the two Transmission Consulting Studies. PacifiCorp also agreed to revise the non-price scoring rubrics.
The Oregon Commission adopted several conditions on approval of the RFP. First, the Oregon Commission directed PacifiCorp to conduct a second phase of the RFP in 2026 for bids that might be able to take advantage of the Boardman to Hemingway (B2H) transmission line. Second, the Oregon Commission required PacifiCorp to accept bids using conditional firm transmission and work with the Independent Evaluator (IE) to develop a scoring and modeling methodology for conditional firm transmission bids. Third, the Oregon Commission directed PacifiCorp to provide more flexibility for interconnection requirements. Fourth, the Oregon Commission adopted NIPPC’s recommendation to require PacifiCorp to produce a price-only ranking of bids. Fifth, the Oregon Commission adopted NIPPC’s recommendation to remove broad liability language in the RFP document. Sixth, the Oregon Commission directed PacifiCorp to work with Oregon Commission Staff and the IE to determine if any of the pro forma contract provisions are out of market. Finally, the Oregon Commission directed PacifiCorp to incorporate projects on Washington and Oregon’s shortlists.
The Washington Commission also adopted several conditions on approval of the RFP. First, the Washington Commission also directed PacifiCorp to accept bids using conditional firm transmission and work with stakeholders to develop a scoring and modeling methodology for conditional firm transmission bids. The Washington Commission later approved a methodology where PacifiCorp would score with two methodologies, PacifiCorp’s preferred method and a methodology the Oregon Commission approved for Portland General Electric Company’s (PGE) 2025 RFP, with a rebuttal presumption in favor of the PGE method and PacifiCorp was required to hire an IE to review the selection or non-selection of those bids. Second, the Washington Commission directed PacifiCorp to issue a report no later than April 1, 2026 if additional transmission service from the B2H transmission line becomes available. Third, the Washington Commission adopted NIPPC’s recommendation to remove broad liability language in the RFP document just like the Oregon Commission. Fourth, the Washington Commission directed PacifiCorp to make some revisions to the non-price scoring matrix and meet with Washington Commission Staff during the RFP to explain how it is evaluating bids for non-price scoring. Finally, the Washington Commission directed PacifiCorp to issue a Request for Information for demand response resources in 2025 and conduct a 2027 targeted RFP for demand resources.
Sanger Greene, PC represented both NIPPC (Irion Sanger and Ellie Hardwick) and Renewable Northwest (Max Greene) regarding the PacifiCorp RFPs.
NIPPC represents electricity market participants in the Pacific Northwest, including independent power producers, electricity service suppliers, and transmission companies. NIPPC is committed to facilitating cost-effective electricity sales, offering consumers choices in their energy supply, and advancing fair, competitive power markets.
Renewable Northwest is a member-based nonprofit advocacy organization with a mission to decarbonize the region by accelerating the transition to renewable electricity.
Disclaimer
These materials are intended to as informational and are not to be considered legal advice or legal opinion, nor do they create a lawyer-client relationship. Information included about previous case results does not assure a similar future result.
