Oregon-based Portland General Electric said it plans to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from its generating resources by at least 80% by 2030, 90% by 2035, and zero emissions by 2040.
To help meet its goals, the utility launched a request for proposals (RFP) public process and filed its first Distribution System Plan (DSP) at the Oregon Public Utilities Commission.
The utility said it will need around 1,500 – 2,000 MW of clean and renewable resources and approximately 800 MW of non-emitting dispatchable capacity resources. It also said it is working to speed up its exit from the coal-fired Colstrip plant by the end of 2025.
The utility’s RFP process aims to procure around 1,000 MW of resources and bring on roughly 375 – 500 MW of renewable resources. The utility said it also will seek around 375 MW of non-emitting dispatchable capacity.
It also estimated that as much as 25% of the power needed to meet peak demand could come from customers and distributed energy resources, such as solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles.
By 2030, PGE said it anticipates the potential for four times as much distributed solar and storage as today, bringing 500 MW of clean electricity to the grid. It said there are around 35,000 electric vehicles in Oregon today, and the state has goals to add 250,000 registered zero emissions vehicles statewide by 2025 and 1.1 million by 2030.
The company serves around 900,000 customers with a service area population of 2 million people in 51 Oregon cities. It owns 16 generation plants across Oregon and other Northwestern states.
This story was updated on October 15 to correctly state the the targeted goals are for GHG emission reductions.
