Capital Press: Oregon PUC hikes power rate for Klamath irrigators

April 13, 2004

The Oregon Public Utility Commission pulled the plug today on a reduced rate for electricity used for agricultural pumping for 2,100 farmers in the upper Klamath Basin.

The PUC said there may be merit to charging PacifiCorp for part of the benefit of being downstream from the federal Klamath Reclamation Project.

With its order, the PUC ends a near 100-year old discount power rate that gave irrigators, irrigation and drainage districts electricity at less than 1 cent per kilowatt hour. Irrigators estimate that if fully implemented the PacifiCorp tariff will increase annual bills by 2,500 percent for some farms.

The PUC staff said rates will increase an average of 34 percent, with government pump rates going up 44 percent.

For this year, the rates will go up to about another 1 cent per kilowatt hour. PacifiCorp ask for, and the PUC accepted, an eventual “cost-based” rate of 6.98 cents per kilowatt hour.

The Oregon Legislature last year passed a law that phases in any Klamath rate hike over seven years. Klamath Water Users Association, representing irrigators, has a petition before the California Public Utility Commission seeking a similar phase-in provision.

PacifiCorp's Klamath hydroelectric license, a 50-year permit that ran with the power rate contract, expired this month.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January ruled that the contract would not be tied to interim licenses issued as conditions for the renewal are worked out. That decision was appealed, but no hearing is set.