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Portland General Electric Co rate plans
2 residential plans are currently open to new customers. Some charge different prices depending on the hour — which is where most of the savings hide.
What does Portland General Electric cost at a normal month’s usage?
A household using 1,000 kWh a month pays about $2,394 a year on the cheapest of the 2 plans we can price here — Residential Service (Rate 7) — and $2,585 on the priciest. Same house, same wires.
| A month of | Cheapest, a year | On which plan | Priciest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 kWh | $1,295 | Residential Service (Rate 7) | $1,391 |
| 1,000 kWh | $2,394 | Residential Service (Rate 7) | $2,585 |
| 2,000 kWh | $4,610 | Residential Service (Rate 7) | $4,974 |
The same plan is cheapest at every level of use here, so the answer does not turn on how much you use. Estimates from the filed tariff, priced hour by hour on a household with central air — not a quote.
What does Portland General Electric Co's residential rate cost?
Portland General Electric Co files a single residential tariff, so there is no plan to choose between — everyone served here is on the same terms. That makes this page short on comparison and long on one question instead: what does that tariff actually do to a bill?
Priced hour by hour across a full year, a small apartment on this tariff comes to about $1,087 and a three-bedroom house with central air to about $1,927 — an effective 22.3¢ and 20.4¢ per kilowatt-hour once the fixed charge is spread across everything used.
With one plan and no hourly pricing, the only lever left is using less. Moving laundry or car charging to the middle of the night changes nothing here, which is worth knowing before you rearrange your evenings for no reason.
Expect the bill to swing with the weather rather than with anything you decide: the same house costs around $218 in July and $126 in February. Budget against the higher figure and the summer bill stops being a surprise.
How Portland General Electric compares with the rest of the country
Portland General Electric is the only Oregon utility we can price, so there is no in-state comparison to make. Against the whole country there is: run the same three-bedroom house with central air through its default plan at each of the 125 utilities we cover, and Portland General Electric lands 97th cheapest — in the dearer half — at about $1,927 a year against a national median of $1,547. The range runs from $905 at Entergy Louisiana (Louisiana) to $5,089 at Ameren Illinois (Illinois).
The other two households sit in the same place: a small apartment pays about $1,087 here against a national median of $895, and the same house with an electric car charging overnight about $2,596 against $2,062. Effective rate, fixed charge included, is 20.4¢ per kilowatt-hour for the family home.
When are Portland General Electric’s peak hours?
Portland General Electric’s peak hours are 5pm–9pm. Everything outside those hours is off-peak, apart from a mid-priced shoulder period. Weekends are off-peak all day.
At peak, Residential Time-Of-Use Service charges 38.4¢ a kWh; off-peak it is 13.2¢ — 2.9× apart. These hours only matter on a time-of-use plan — the default plan, Residential Service (Rate 7), charges one rate at every hour.
On Residential Time-Of-Use Service, every kilowatt-hour a day you move from 5pm to midnight is worth about $92 a year in the month the gap is widest — an electric car or a water heater on a timer is the kind of load that actually moves. When to charge an electric car →
Which plan would cost you least?
No bill upload, no sign-up. Tell us roughly what a month costs you and what runs on electricity — we price every plan against the same household and show you the gap.
That adds up to 8,097 kWh a year. Compare it to the total on your bill and adjust until it’s close.
Same usage, different plan
$123a year
That is the gap between the cheapest plan you could be on — Residential Service (Rate 7) — and the priciest. Not by using less power. By being billed differently for the same power.
| Plan | Per year | Vs best |
|---|---|---|
| Residential Service (Rate 7)One rate, every hour of the year. | $1,678 | — |
| Residential Time-Of-Use Service (Rate 7-TOU of EV)Peak hits 5pm–9pm on weekdays, all year. | $1,800 | +$123 |
An estimate, not a quote. Supply charges move month to month, and your real usage pattern is not exactly this one. What it does show reliably is the gap between plans — both are priced off the same assumptions.
Before you switch anything
- What is a time-of-use electricity rate?
The same kilowatt-hour, priced differently depending on when you use it.
- Should you switch to a time-of-use electricity plan?
A wide peak-to-off-peak gap is a lever, not a saving. Levers need something to move.
- How to compare electricity plans without getting it wrong
Six things that break a comparison, and the order to check them in.
Every plan, in detail
Hour-by-hour schedules, tier thresholds, and the tariff each one comes from.