Oregon electricity prices - 16.32¢/kWh (June 2026)
Residential price, average bill, and the data-center story
- Residential electricity in Oregon costs 16.32¢/kWh as of - +3.3% year over year, per U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
- The average Oregon home used 735 kWh that month and paid an average bill of $119.91 (+2.8% vs a year earlier).
- Oregon has the 26th-highest residential electricity price of the 50 states and DC - 11% below the U.S. average of 18.34¢/kWh.
Price by sector
| Sector | ¢/kWh (June 2026) | 1-yr change |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | 16.32¢ | +3.3% |
| Commercial | 10.59¢ | −2.8% |
| Industrial | 8.83¢ | +3.4% |
Data centers & Oregon's electric bills
Oregon's 2025 POWER Act created a separate rate class for data centers and other users of more than 20 megawatts, and regulators have now implemented it: the Public Utility Commission approved PGE's Schedule 96 large-load tariff on May 7, 2026, then on July 7, 2026 approved a 29.7% rate increase for that class while residential rates fell 1.3% (about $1.91 per month). The state consumer advocate had argued during the proceeding that PGE's original cost-allocation proposal would still have assigned residential customers 45% of new power-supply costs.
- 2025-06-05 - The Oregon Legislature passed the POWER Act (House Bill 3546) on June 5, 2025, creating a separate rate classification for data centers, cryptocurrency miners, and other users consuming more than 20 megawatts and requiring them to sign 10-year contracts with minimum payment commitments. Source: OPB
- 2025-11-24 - The Oregon Citizens' Utility Board said on November 24, 2025 that PGE's proposed cost allocation would charge residential customers 45% of the cost of new power supply and 34% of new transmission needed to meet load growth, even though industrial (data center) load had grown 95% versus 3.5% for residential customers. Source: Oregon Citizens' Utility Board
- 2026-05-07 - On May 7, 2026 the Oregon PUC approved PGE's Schedule 96 large-load tariff, effective June 10, 2026, which applies to data centers exceeding 20 MW and includes contracts of 10 to 30 years depending on size, minimum demand charges of 90% of contracted capacity, 100% customer payment for distribution upgrades, and a 1 cent/kWh surcharge on projects larger than 100 MW. Source: Utility Dive
- 2026-07-07 - On July 7, 2026 the Oregon PUC unanimously approved a 29.7% rate increase for data centers and other large energy users on PGE's system while residential rates decreased 1.3%, about $1.91 per month in savings. Source: OPB
Each item above is dated and linked to its primary source; entries are reviewed quarterly. See the large-load tariff tracker and the who-paid-what ledger for the cross-state picture.
Water
Electricity delivered in Oregon carries 6.75 liters of water per kilowatt-hour consumed at the power plants supplying it (0.33 L/kWh excluding hydropower reservoir evaporation), against a national average of 4.28. That is above the national figure, and it is a property of the grid here rather than of any one building: a data center drawing 100 GWh a year in Oregon accounts for about 178.4 million gallons of power-plant water before it cools anything. All states ranked →
A data center's water use is roughly twelve times larger once the water evaporated at its power plants is counted. The Colorado River arithmetic → · how the water numbers work →