PacifiCorp

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

PacifiCorp
Subsidiary
IndustryElectricity
Founded1910 (1910)[1]
HeadquartersLloyd Center Tower
825 N.E. Multnomah Street, Portland, Oregon
Area served
143,000 square miles
Utah 47%

California 3%
Idaho 4%
Oregon 31%
Washington 7%

Wyoming 8%
Key people
William J. Fehrman, Chair and CEO, PacifiCorp

Stefan Bird, President and CEO, Pacific Power

Gary Hoogeveen, President and CEO, Rocky Mountain Power
OwnerBerkshire Hathaway
Number of employees
5,700[2]
ParentBerkshire Hathaway Energy
SubsidiariesPacific Power
Rocky Mountain Power
Websitewww.pacificorp.com 
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.

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

PacifiCorp is currently headquartered in the Lloyd Center Tower[4] 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 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.

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.[5]

Organization

PacifiCorp was formed in 1910 from the merger of several small electric companies in eastern 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.

In 1987, PacifiCorp acquired Utah Power & Light.[6] Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah Power had been formed in 1912 from the merger of four electric companies in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. In 1881, one of those companies made Salt Lake City the fifth city in the world with central station electricity.

After the merger, Pacific Power and Utah Power operated as divisions of PacifiCorp. 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.[7]

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.[8]

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, Springville, St. George

Wyoming

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

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 the state'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.[9]

History

Utah Power and Light (UP&L) was organized on 6 September 1912 as a 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.

Pacific Power & Light was formed in 1910 from the merger of several financially troubled utilities in Oregon and Washington. 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.[10]

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 700.0
Lake Side Lindon, Utah Natural Gas 545.0
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
Little Mountain Great Salt Lake, Utah Natural Gas 14.0
Total Coal 5922
Total Gas 2534
TOTAL 8456

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 32.6
Blundell Geothermal 23.0
Goodnoe Hills Wind 94
Marengo I Wind 140.4
Marengo II Wind 70.2
Glenrock Wind 99
Seven Mile Hill Wind 99
Seven Mile Hill II Wind 19.5
Rolling Hills Wind 99
Glenrock III Wind 39
Total Wind 916.4
Total Geothermal 23
TOTAL Renewable 939.4

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]

References and sources
  1. "Company Overview".
  2. "Company Quick Facts". Archived from the original on 2018-11-20. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
  3. http://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pacificorp/doc/About_Us/Company_Overview/PC-FactSheet-Final_Web.pdf
  4. Culverwell, Wendy (August 24, 2007). "Fresh off some big moves, Integra signs large lease". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
  5. Rio Tinto timeline Archived 2010-12-19 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Times, Richard W. Stevenson and Special To the New York. "Pacificorp, Utah Power To Merge". Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  7. Electrical Development in Utah Archived 2008-05-08 at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Pacific Power Quick Facts". Retrieved 2010-05-31.
  9. "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.
  10. "Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions".
  11. https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2018/03/06/pacificorp-okd-to-build-ev-charging-stations-as.html
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