Demand for electricity in Oregon predicted to rise - KEZI TV

Demand for electricity in Oregon predicted to rise | News | kezi.com

EUGENE, Ore. – Across Oregon, the demand for electricity is expected to rise significantly according to a study by the Eugene Water and Electric Board and the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee.

EWEB said they haven’t seen this big of a need for electricity since the 1980s. They’re seeing a 20% increase in demand in 2023 when compare to 2022. A 10-year study from the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, which works with EWEB to improve power conditions, predicts that as the demand for carbon and fossil fuel-powered heating and transportation goes down, the demand for electricity will keep going up.

“Our industry is going through incredible transformation and we're seeing an increase in demand for electricity because of decarbonization efforts,” said Crystal Ball, the Executive Director of the PNUCC. “The utilities have plans on how they're going to meet this demand and it's really a great opportunity to share what's going on with the EWEB board.”

The PNUCC also shared that they see energy efficiency being a foundational concept for meeting the growing power demand. To prevent a power shortage, utilities like EWEB are stepping up to create new renewable energy resources and energy storage.

“Across the region demand for electricity is projected to rise,” said Aaron Orlowski, a spokesperson for EWEB. “Here at EWEB we forecast that our demand will similarly start rising by at least 2% per year starting at 2030 largely due to people switching to electric vehicles.”

Another uptick in electricity use is coming from semiconductor manufacturing moving into the Pacific Northwest. Orlowski also said centers that are processing data from things like Amazon orders and Facebook posts also use a lot of electricity.