Portland General Electric (PGE) is a Fortune 1000 public utility based in Portland, Oregon. It distributes electricity to customers in parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Washington, and Polk counties - 44% of the inhabitants of Oregon. Founded in 1888 as the Willamette Falls Electric Company, the company has been an independent company for most of its existence, though was briefly owned by the Houston-based Enron Corporation from 1997 until 2006 when Enron divested itself of PGE during its bankruptcy.
Notably, PGE does not serve all of Portland. Its service territory comprises most of Portland west of the Willamette River, sharing most of the city east of the river with Pacific Power.
PGE produces and purchases energy primarily from coal and natural gas plants, as well as hydroelectric power from dams on the Clackamas, Willamette and Deschutes rivers. Between 1976 and 1993, PGE operated Trojan, the only nuclear power plant in Oregon. Trojan was the subject of three Oregon initiatives to shut it down. The initiatives failed, but the company elected to close the plant twenty years early.
History
The utility was founded in 1888 by Parker F. Morey and Edward L. Eastham as Willamette Falls Electric Company. On June 3, 1889, it sent power generated by one of four brush arc light dynamos at Willamette Falls over a 14-mile electric power transmission line to Portland, the first US power plant to do so. On August 6, 1892, Morey, Frederick Van Voorhies Holman, and Henry Failing formed the Portland General Electric Company. It was funded by General Electric and the investment arm of Old Colony Trust, with $4.25 million in capital. The newly formed PGE Company purchased Willamette Falls Electric and the Albina Light & Water Company in 1892.
Less than a year later, in May 1893, PGE purchased the City-Eastside Electric Light Plant, a municipal power company. E. Kimbark MacColl, who chronicled the history of Portland, referred to it "a generous gift to a private company at the expense of future taxpayers" since it was constructed for a cost of $40,342 and sold 15 months later for $27,000.
In 1903, Henry W. Goode, the president of PGE, decided to make PGE a "popular public utility." His vision was for the company to light the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905. in 1903, he traveled to the east coast to raise three thousand dollars from shareholders. His plan went through, and Thomas H. Wright was put in charge of designing the lighting for the fair.
PGE also purchased the Union Power Company in 1905, and the Vancouver Electric Light & Power Company in 1906. In 1906, PGE, Portland Railway Company, and Oregon Water Power & Railway Company merged, becoming the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company (PRL&P). It was the only streetcar operator within Portland city limits, and the predecessor of the modern PGE.
The company name became Portland Electric Power Company (PEPCO) in 1932. It was reorganized in 1948 as PGE.
On March 1, 1939, PEPCO defaulted on interest bonds that had been issued in March 1934. The bonds were pledged with PGE (the electric subsidiary) and Portland Traction Company (the streetcar subsidiary) as collateral, with Guaranty Trust as trustee. PEPCO filed for Chapter X bankruptcy (now known as Chapter 9) on April 3, 1939, and was assigned District Judge James Alger Fee. The proceedings were later called "one of the most prolonged and complicated series of legal proceedings in Portland's history".
The reorganization and bond default was brought on by PGE's difficult negotiations with Bonneville Power Administration, the death of Seattle City Light's visionary J. D. Ross, and the indecision created by the possible creation of a public utility district in PGE's territory. The Columbia Valley Authority project would have allowed CVA to purchase utilities such as PGE.
PGE survived bankruptcy partially through cheap power purchases from BPA beginning in the fall of 1939, and by the end of 1941 they showed net profits. In the meantime, Ormond R. Bean, the Oregon Public Utility Commissioner, forced PGE to lower its rates. Ultimately, PEPCO and PGE were saved by World War II, which led to the construction of three Kaiser Shipyards and of Vanport City, Oregon to support them. By 1945, PGE derived nearly $400,000 in revenue from the two Kaiser shipyards in Oregon. In August 1946, after the war, they were able to sell Portland Traction for $8 million in cash. Judge Fee ruled the bankruptcy reorganization complete on June 29, 1946.