Owning its electric utility gives the city the ability to provide residents cleaner, less expensive power

By Bob Kaplan

Did you know that Ashland is one of just 12 Oregon municipalities that owns its electric utility? It’s a fascinating history that started more than a hundred years ago; read about it here on the city’s website. This visionary move has provided many advantages to Ashland residents over the years. What’s more, with all the focus on renewable energy and climate change these days, owning our electric company has positioned Ashland exceptionally well for the future.

Ashland Electric serves more than 11,000 residential, commercial and government customers, and our team of dedicated professionals does a stellar job keeping the lights on, consistently receiving the Excellence in Reliability award from the American Public Power Association.

Residents in all our neighboring communities, from Mount Shasta to Roseburg, from Crescent City to Lakeview, purchase electricity from Pacific Power, a for-profit subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Not surprisingly, Pacific Power charges more and offers fewer perks, discounts and rebates. Ashland, on the other hand, sets its own rate structure based on our values and priorities of affordability, community resilience and reducing our climate impact.

Running the numbers

Ashland households pay significantly less for electricity than our neighbors in Talent, Phoenix and Medford. Although we pay a higher fixed monthly meter fee, and, since the 1970s, a 25% tax to support other city services (like fire and rescue and police), our price per kilowatt hour is substantially lower, particularly benefiting those who use the least amount of electricity. Here are the details, including an example for a typical household using 1,000kWh per month:

In addition, Ashland’s utility discount program provides low-income households with a 50% discount for three winter months, or for six months for qualifying seniors and persons with disabilities. The council has asked staff for proposals to expand our utility discount programs further.

Where does Ashland’s electricity come from?

Since 1982, Ashland has purchased wholesale power from the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that manages a network of 31 hydropower dams in the Columbia River basin. Ashland consumes about 20 average annual megawatts, with summer and winter peak loads of about 40MW.

Our current contract with BPA expires at the end of September 2028, and the groundwork is already being laid for the next contract, which will run through September 2044. BPA’s policy for serving its Provider of Choice customers (like Ashland) continues to prioritize low pricing while providing more flexibility to meet local objectives, like adding more local renewable resources to the mix.

In addition to power from BPA, the city owns a small 850kW hydropower plant below Reeder Reservoir, and about 4% of our needs are met by over 5MW of local solar capacity owned by local residents and businesses. Southern Oregon University has been visionary in pursuing opportunities to expand its solar plant, and the city recently installed dual-axis solar trackers at our operations center along with battery backup to provide resilience for some city operations. Last year we received a state grant to explore other solar sites on city-owned property to add more local solar capacity.

Ashland Electric’s role in the city’s Climate and Energy Action Plan

Owning our electric utility gives Ashland a terrific advantage for meeting the goals of the city’s Climate and Energy Action Plan, approved in 2017. The plan calls for reducing our use of dirty fossil fuels like “natural” gas (methane) and gasoline by switching to electricity to power our buildings and vehicles. Since virtually all our electric power comes from renewable sources, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality ranks Ashland Electric among the cleanest in the state. Pacific Power, on the other hand, gets almost two-thirds of its electricity from coal and methane; it’s required by state law to reduce that to zero by 2040.

I’m proud our city helps residents and businesses reduce their carbon footprint by offering a variety of rebates and incentives to replace inefficient and fossil fuel-powered household appliances such as furnaces, water heaters, clothes dryers and stoves or ranges, and I look forward to doing more. Replacing aging gas appliances with electric ones also improves air quality and can save households on their monthly utility costs too.

Ashland offers two advantageous routes for customers who want to use solar power. First, when customers install panels on their property, the city credits their account at the prevailing marginal rate tier rather than at a fixed preset lower rate, as is common practice at other electric companies. The second route is “virtual net metering” (community solar), which credits customers for electricity generated off-site, typically as part of a large array. Several Ashland businesses have taken advantage of this policy, and the Ashland Solar Co-op is about to build an array this year for renters and homeowners. While Pacific Power charges community solar customers an extra $20 a month for the privilege of generating their own electricity, Ashland Electric does not currently charge a monthly subscription or administrative fee for this service.

Finally, Bonneville Power’s post-2028 policy will make it easier to add larger solar arrays up to 1MW each. Under the current BPA contract, each solar array is limited to 200kW per transformer; that’s what’s installed at Oak Street Tank and Steel and at Ashland Middle School. Larger arrays will allow us to generate and store more electricity locally to mitigate the risk of transmission disruptions.

These are all positives in my book, and I look forward to exploring additional ways to ensure clean, reliable, and affordable power for our community well into the future.

Email Ashland City Councilor Bob Kaplan at [email protected]. Email letters to the editor and Viewpoint submissions to [email protected].

July 31: Link to more information about Bob Kaplan and his email address both updated.