Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Committee debates bill to scale up distributed power plants; utilities and industry split on third‑party aggregators
Summary
House Bill 3609 would require electric companies to develop distributed power plant programs that aggregate customer‑owned resources to provide grid services; proponents told the committee the approach can quickly add capacity and lower costs, while Portland General Electric warned the bill would prioritize third‑party aggregators over customers and risk added system costs.
House Bill 3609, presented March 11 to the House Climate, Energy and Environment Committee, would require electric companies to develop and file distributed power plant (virtual power plant) programs with the Oregon Public Utility Commission. Supporters said the programs use customer‑owned resources – rooftop solar, batteries, smart thermostats and electric vehicles – to provide grid services and reduce peak demand.
“Distributed power plants are the only resource with the potential to provide resource adequacy at a negative net cost to society,” Shannon Anderson of Solar United Neighbors Action told the panel, citing Brattle Group analysis.
Angela Crowley Cook, executive director of the Oregon Solar and Storage Industries Association (OSEA), said…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
