Consumers Power, Inc electricity rates

It is a smaller system, serving 18,751 residential customers, which means its fixed costs are spread across a narrow base. At 13.01¢ per kilowatt-hour it is one of the cheaper places to buy electricity in Oregon, 20% under the statewide average of 16.27¢.

Its customers use more electricity than the national norm, 1,175 kilowatt-hours a month against 871, which amplifies whatever the rate does.

Owned by the customers it serves, with directors elected by members. Co-ops are frequently outside state rate regulation. That matters because a bill is not only the cost of generating electricity: it also carries the cost of the network, and who owns that network changes how it is paid for.

In 2024 the average Consumers Power, Inc customer went 1,053 minutes without electricity across 3.51 interruptions. The median across the 941 utilities that report this is 185 minutes.

That is far worse than typical, and figures at this level almost always reflect a major storm season rather than everyday performance. A single hurricane or ice storm can dominate the annual number.

616 residential customers had net-metered solar in 2024, totalling 4.42 megawatts. That works out to 32.9 installations per thousand customers, against a median of 8 across the utilities reporting it.

Adoption here is exceptionally high. That usually means some combination of a high retail rate worth displacing, strong sunshine and favourable export rules, and it tends to bring its own regulatory argument about who covers the fixed cost of the network. What exports are actually worth.