Oregon

POWER Act: separate rate class for 20 MW+ large energy use facilities (data centers)

Enacted legislation or regulation

In effect This instrument is recorded as currently in effect as of the dataset date.

Scope

Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 323 (House Bill 3546, the POWER Act) adds sections to ORS chapter 757 requiring the Public Utility Commission to provide a separate classification of service, with its own tariff schedule, for retail electricity consumers that are large energy use facilities, defined as facilities that use or are able to use 20 megawatts or more and are primarily engaged in providing a service described under code 518210 of the 2022 North American Industry Classification System. Tariffs for the class must allocate or directly assign the costs of serving those facilities and mitigate the risk of shifting unwarranted costs to other customers, and contracts must run 10 years or longer. The statute itself does not use the words data center; the Public Utility Commission applies it to data centers (Order No. 26-154 and its 2026 POWER Act report).

Geographic scope
Oregon
Jurisdiction
State
Authority type
Legislature
Issuing authority
Oregon Legislative Assembly

Dates

Adopted
16 June 2025
Effective
16 June 2025
Scheduled expiration
See completion condition
Ended
Not recorded as ended
Completion condition
The rate-class and contract sections state no expiration. Section 4 repeals the transitional Section 3 on 2 January 2028 and Section 8 repeals the reporting Section 7 on 2 January 2035; neither ends the rate-class requirement.
Source document
The source page states no document date
Last checked
23 September 2026 (earlier than tracker date 5 October 2026; not an automatic status change)

Summary

Oregon House Bill 3546 (2025), the POWER Act, requires the Public Utility Commission to create a separate electricity rate class for large energy use facilities of 20 megawatts or more that are primarily engaged in the data processing and hosting services of NAICS code 518210, with tariffs that assign the costs of serving them to that class and contracts of at least 10 years. The Governor signed it on 16 June 2025 and it took effect that day as chapter 323. The Public Utility Commission describes the act as directing it to assign the costs of serving data centers to those customers.

What this does not establish

  • The statute defines its scope by the 20-megawatt threshold and NAICS code 518210, not by the words data center; the data-center connection rests on Public Utility Commission Order No. 26-154 and the Commission's 2026 POWER Act report, which apply the act to data centers.
  • Only the enrolled bill and the legislative history were opened; the codified ORS sections were not compared.
  • Implementation by the Commission (PGE Schedule 96 and Pacific Power dockets) is recorded separately; this record does not restate any tariff.

Unresolved questions

None recorded.

Relationships

Supersession means a later instrument replaces the earlier legal effect. Repeal links identify the repeal instrument and the measure it ends. A later implementation or related letter is not treated as a replacement unless the record says so.

  • No related action is recorded.

Sources

Primary source

https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/HB3546/Enrolled

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