PacifiCorp is an electric power company in the western United States.
PacifiCorp has two business units:
- Pacific Power is a regulated electric utility with service territory throughout Oregon, northern California, and southeastern Washington.
- Rocky Mountain Power is a regulated electric utility with service territory throughout Utah, Wyoming, and southeastern Idaho.
PacifiCorp operates one of the largest privately held transmission systems in the U.S. within the western Energy Imbalance Market.
In 2001, PacifiCorp was purchased by Scottish Power. Since 2006, PacifiCorp has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy (formerly MidAmerican), itself an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway.
PacifiCorp is currently headquartered in the Lloyd Center Tower at 825 N.E. Multnomah Street, Portland, Oregon, in the Lloyd District. Pacific Power is also headquartered in the same building. Rocky Mountain Power is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power combined serve over 1.6 million residential customers, 202,000 commercial customers, and 37,000 industrial and irrigation customers - for a total of approximately 1,813,000 customers. The service area is 143,000 square miles (370,000Â km2). The company owns and maintain 16,500 miles (26,600Â km) of long distance transmission lines, 64,000 miles (103,000Â km) of distribution lines, and 900 substations.
In 1977, PacifiCorp spun off its coal mining interests into a mining company known as NERCO, which was eventually listed on the New York Stock Exchange and ranked as high as 353 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest American companies. Through its majority interest in NERCO, PacifiCorp was involved in the mining of coal, oil, natural gas, gold, silver, and uranium. PacifiCorp still owned 82% of NERCO in 1993, when it was acquired by the mining giant, the Rio Tinto Group.
Organization
PacifiCorp was formed in 1910 from the merger of several small electric companies in eastern Oregon and Washington to form the Pacific Power & Light Company. It gradually expanded its reach to include most of Oregon, as well as portions of California, Washington and Wyoming. In 1984, it reorganized itself as a holding company, PacifiCorp, headquartered in Portland with Pacific Power as its main subsidiary.
In 1987, PacifiCorp acquired Utah Power & Light. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah Power had been formed in 1912 from the merger of four electric companies in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. In 1881, one of those companies made Salt Lake City the fifth city in the world with central station electricity.
After the merger, Pacific Power and Utah Power operated as divisions of PacifiCorp. In a July 2006 reorganization, Pacific Power's territory in central and eastern Wyoming was merged with the Utah Power territory to form Rocky Mountain Power.
Pacific Power
Pacific Power serves customers in Washington, Oregon and California. Major cities served include:
- California
- Crescent City
- Dunsmuir
- Mount Shasta
- Yreka
- Oregon
- Albany
- Astoria
- Bend
- Coos Bay
- Corvallis
- Dallas
- Grants Pass
- Hermiston
- Hood River
- Independence
- Klamath Falls
- Lebanon
- Lincoln City
- Medford
- North Bend
- Pendleton
- Portland (parts of downtown, northern and eastern Portland; the rest of city is served by Portland General Electric.)
- Prineville
- Redmond
- Roseburg
- Stayton
- Sweet Home
- Washington
- Walla Walla
- Yakima
As of December 31, 2009, Pacific Power serves 555,070 customers in Oregon, 126,665 customers in Washington, and 45,148 customers in California.
Rocky Mountain Power
Rocky Mountain Power serves customers in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.
Major cities served include:
Idaho
Ammon, Lava Hot Springs, Malad City, Montpelier, Preston, Rigby, Saint Anthony, Shelley
Utah
Rocky Mountain Power serves most major cities in Utah, with the following exceptions:
Bountiful, Kaysville, Lehi, Logan, Provo, Murray, Springville
Wyoming
Buffalo, Casper, Cody, Douglas, Evanston, Green River, Kemmerer, Lander, Laramie, Rawlins, Riverton, Rock Springs, Thermopolis
As of May 1, 2007, Rocky Mountain Power serves approximately 758,000 customers in Utah, 129,000 customers in Idaho, and 67,000 customers in Wyoming.
History
Utah Power and Light (UP&L) was organized on 6 September 1912 as a subsidiary of a large holding company, Electric Bond and Share Company (EBASCO) of New York. Within four years of its organization, UP&L had purchased twenty-seven other electric companies in the general Utah area, and eventually absorbed more than one hundred thirty.
Pacific Power & Light was formed in 1910 from the merger of several financially troubled utilities in Oregon and Washington. In 1954, Pacific Power & Light merged with the Mountain States Power Company, essentially doubling the company's service area. In 1961, the company purchased the California Oregon Power Company, extending its service into southern Oregon and northern California.
PacifiCorp owns, maintains and operates generation assets and manages the commercial and trading operations of the company. PacifiCorp owns 68 generating plants with a capacity of 9,140 megawatts. 70.6% of the generation is from thermal sources (i.e., coal or natural gas), 6.7% from hydroelectric sources, and 0.2% from renewable sources. 22.5% of PacifiCorp's generation is purchased from other suppliers or under contracts.
Generation resources
In these tables of generation properties owned or partially-owned by PacifiCorp, total capacity is 10,556MW. Of this, 56% is coal, 24% is natural gas, 10% is hydroelectric, and 10% is renewable.
Major generation facilities include:
Thermal generation
Hydroelectric Generation
Renewable generation
Coal mining
PacifiCorp also owns and operates several captive coal mines located at or very near some of its generation plants. In Wyoming, PacifiCorp operates and has partial interest in Jim Bridger Mine and owns the Dave Johnston Mine, which is in final reclamation. The company also owns and operates the Deer Creek Mine in Utah, near the Huntington Plant and has a partial interest in the Trapper Mine in Colorado.
References and sources
External links
- Pacificorp home page
- Pacific Power home page
- Rocky Mountain Power home page
- Berkshire Hathaway Energy home page
