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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.
Looking for when the expensive hours are? Portland General Electric’s peak hours, plan by plan →
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.
How much does the plan you pick actually matter here?
Run the same three-bedroom house with central air through every plan Portland General Electric Co files, and the bill lands anywhere between $1,927 and $2,077 a year. That $150 spread is not a difference in electricity — it is the same kilowatt-hours, from the same wires, priced under different rules. Nobody sends you a letter when you are on the wrong side of it.
1 of these 2 plans price by the hour. Those are the ones where moving laundry, dishes, or car charging into the cheap window changes the bill; on the rest, the clock is irrelevant and only the total matters. Which camp you belong in is the first question worth settling, because it decides whether shifting your day is worth anything at all.
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 127 utilities we cover, and Portland General Electric lands 99th cheapest — in the dearer half — at about $1,927 a year against a national median of $1,566. The range runs from $905 at Entergy Louisiana (Louisiana) to $4,726 at San Diego Gas & Electric (California).
The other two households sit in the same place: a small apartment pays about $1,087 here against a national median of $901, and the same house with an electric car charging overnight about $2,596 against $2,067. Effective rate, fixed charge included, is 20.4¢ per kilowatt-hour for the family home.
Inside Portland General Electric itself, the gap between its cheapest and dearest plan for that house is $150 a year. That is the part of the bill a customer here can act on; the rest is set by which utility the address falls under.
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.