Breaking down your PGE bill
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
While most people focus on the cost and due date on their monthly power bill, understanding what's behind those costs can explain why overall bills have gone up even while some parts have fallen.
Why it matters: We're going to break down a hypothetical $100 monthly bill from Portland General Electric and explain which parts have gone up or down over the last five years.
The latest: PGE requested another rate increase of 4.8% last week, which the Public Utilities Commission will consider over the coming months.
How it works: We chatted with PGE spokesperson Drew Hanson and Charlotte Shuff from the utility watchdog Oregon Citizens Utility Board to get a plain-English explanation of what makes up your bill.
- Hanson provided the percentage that each charge makes up in the overall bill and how they've changed over the last five years.
From the top down, let's run through the charges you find on your bill:
Energy use charge: The electricity a customer consumes, measured in kilowatt-hours.
- On our $100 monthly bill, that accounts for $39.10, which is actually down from $47 in 2021.
- Shuff said part of the decrease is due to increased use of renewables, which don't suffer from the price volatility of fossil fuels.
Transmission and distribution: Getting power from its source to a substation in your neighborhood and then from there to your home
- That's going to run you $31.70, down from $35.60 five years ago.
Power cost adjustments: The cost of buying power from other sources when it's cheaper than generating it here.
- This part fluctuates — it was $3.30 in 2021, got as high as $7.60 in 2024 and is forecast to be in the negative, a credit of $2.70 this year.
Regulatory and utility cost adjustments: These vary from bill to bill and represent costs the utility is recouping for specific projects, like battery storage and operation of power plants.
- It's a small part of the overall bill at just $0.40, but it's often the most confusing for customers, Shuff told Axios.
Energy assistance and efficiency: These funds go to programs like the Energy Trust of Oregon that work to lower electricity demand and help customers save on their bills.
- This is the biggest increase on the bill at $19.50, up from $7.60 five years ago.
Taxes: A consistent $3 to your bill since 2021.
Follow the money: PGE's profit, capped at 9.34% by the Public Utilities Commission, is incorporated into those rates.
- The investor-owned utility reported $306 million in net profits in 2025.
- Shuff said there are ways to make rising utility costs more palatable, like low-income discount programs or changing the date you pay so the bill isn't due on the same day as rent.
What's next: Shuff also pointed to several pieces of legislation that should prevent residents from paying for the power used by data centers and aim to make rate increases more predictable.
- "The goal is to make it a lot smaller, a lot more manageable, so we're not hit with an 18% increase, you know, in the middle of winter, and have to pick up the pieces from that for years later."