Saving Money and Saving the Planet Go Hand in Hand

Multnomah County Advocates for Sustainable Electricity Generation in Integrated Resource Plans

Pacific Power and Portland General Electric (PGE) file “Integrated Resource Plans,” or IRPs with the PUC that, at a very high level, represent their plans to provide high quality and reliable electricity service to their customers while minimizing risks and costs. IRPs processes are key to whether utilities choose clean or emitting resources to serve our communities. As a result, Multnomah County's Office of Sustainability has a long history of engaging in these time- and resource- intensive processes so that we can advocate for cleaner electricity generation and for more accessible and values-driven IRPs.

This year, Multnomah County's engagement contributed to significant progress is cleaning our electricity supply:

1. Multnomah County supported the PUC’s approval of PGE’s plans to procure renewables, and advocated for PGE evaluating the benefits of exiting its last coal plant years earlier than planned. As expected, PGE subsequently found it to be a good idea.
2. Multnomah County supported the PUC’s approval of Pacific Power’s plans to procure large amounts of renewables and successfully advocated for the utility’s continued commitment to evaluating its existing coal fleet.

Both IRP processes resulted in important progress towards the goals found in the County's 100x50 Resolution, of meeting both the communities electricity needs by 2035, and the communities’ energy needs by 2050 with renewables.