The Oregon Public Utility Commission has scheduled to meetings to gather public comments about Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative’s proposed purchase of Idaho Power Co.’s service territory in Oregon.

OTEC, the member-owned cooperative started in 1988 in Baker City, announced the proposed $154 million sale in February 2026. OTEC and Idaho Power filed a joint application with the PUC on May 20. They are asking the PUC to approve the deal by Feb. 20, 2027.

The deal would be OTEC’s first major expansion since it was formed 38 years ago. The cooperative has about 32,000 meters in Baker, Union, Grant and Harney counties, serving about 60,000 people.

According to financial reports OTEC filed with the PUC, in 2025 the cooperative’s revenue from members totaled $61.7 million, and its operating expenses totaled $56.5 million. OTEC refunded almost $3 million to its members in capital credits, which are analogous to dividends paid to shareholders of a private company.

The agency has scheduled one virtual meeting and one in-person meeting to collect public comments about the proposed sale. During both, PUC officials will give an overview of the requested deal.

The virtual meeting is scheduled for Aug. 18 at 5 p.m. PDT. The link to join the meeting is https://bit.ly/ UM2447-PCH.

The in-person meeting is set for Aug. 24 at 5 p.m. PDT at Ontario City Hall, 444 S.W. Fourth St.

Other ways to comment include:

• Online — https://bit.ly/UM2447
• Email: PUC.PublicComments@puc.oregon.gov
• Phone: 503-378-6600 or 800-522-2404 (all relay calls accepted)
• Mail to: Oregon Public Utility Commission
Attn: AHD – UM 2247
P.O. Box 1088
Salem, OR 97308-1088

La Grande group raises questions about proposed deal

Lea Hoover, OTEC’s director of member and strategic services, said on Aug. 6 that “everything is progressing on schedule” with the PUC application.

“It’s on track,” Hoover said. “Idaho Power has been a great partner.”

A group from La Grande — Frontier Resilient Energy & Equity, FREE — has filed as an intervenor in the PUC process. FREE, which formerly was the Stop B2H Coalition and opposed Idaho Power’s 293-mile Boardman to Hemingway power transmission line, which is being built now in Malheur, Baker, Union, Umatilla and Morrow counties — “has identified multiple potential harms” in OTEC’s proposed purchase, according to a press release from the group.

FREE is encouraging people to send comments to the PUC.

“Now is the time for ratepayers to ask questions and speak-out, before it’s too late” Jim Kreider, co-chair of FREE, said in the press release. “There has been very little discussion among communities that will be impacted and it’s important that people are adequately informed.”

FREE is calling on the PUC to ensure that the acquisition will keep OTEC customers “in an equivalent or better position regarding rates, reliability, and service quality.”

FREE’s press release includes questions about how the deal would affect OTEC’s rates for the new customers it would gain, whether OTEC would continue Idaho Power’s winter discount for low-income customers, and how OTEC and Idaho Power will coordinate on issues such as outage responses and liability coverage for wildfires.

Under the proposed deal, OTEC would buy Idaho Power’s service territory, including its distribution lines, but not power-generating facilities, including Idaho Power’s three dams on the Snake River (Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon), or the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line.

FREE also questions whether residential and irrigation customers would “subsidize costs that should fall on commercial loads?”

The Baker City Herald has asked OTEC to comment on FREE’s press release, and cooperative officials were working on a reply Thursday.

PUC application

The application that OTEC and Idaho Power filed in May states: “The Transaction is consistent with the public interest and will result in no harm to Idaho Power’s former Oregon customers. It will also eliminate and avoid unnecessary duplication of facilities; promote the efficient and economic use, development and operational safety of the Parties’ utility systems; and provide adequate and reasonable service to all territories and 5 customers involved in the Transaction.”

OTEC is represented by Portland law firm Cable Huston LLP and Hawley, Troxell, Ennis & Hawley of Boise. Idaho Power is represented by a company attorney and by the Portland firm McDowell Rackner Gibson PC.

Hoover, OTEC’s director of member and strategic services, said in February the proposed acquisition will help OTEC keep its rates competitive even as inflation and other factors increase the cooperative’s costs.

“The economies of scale we’re going to see is the real benefit,” Hoover said in an interview on Feb. 23.

The proposed deal would add about 20,000 members to OTEC’s rolls, including about 2,900 meters in Baker County, Hoover said.

(There are more meters than customers, since some customers, such as farmers and ranchers, have multiple meters, for homes, outbuildings and irrigation pumps.)

Idaho Power’s service area in Oregon includes parts of eastern and southern Baker County, including Richland, Halfway, Oxbow, Huntington and Unity.

The company also has customers across Malheur County and in parts of Harney County.

Oregon residents make up 4% of Idaho Power’s customers, according to the application. The vast majority of the company’s customers are in Idaho, including the rapidly growing Boise metropolitan area.

Hoover said the majority of the new members OTEC would add, if the PUC approves the acquisition, are in Ontario.

Acquiring Idaho Power’s Oregon customers would allow OTEC to spread the cost of buying and transmitting power — OTEC, unlike Idaho Power, doesn’t produce electricity — over a much larger member base, which would help OTEC absorb future increases in the cost of wholesale power, supplies and labor, Hoover said.

She said OTEC would finance the deal with Idaho Power by taking out a loan from the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp., the same Virginia bank that provided the initial $33 million loan for OTEC’s creation in 1988. Hoover said OTEC officials, after analyzing the transaction, believe revenue from its new members would cover the loan repayments.

OTEC paid off the $33 million loan about two years ago, Hoover said. She expects repaying a loan for the Idaho Power deal would take 25 to 30 years.

Hoover said Idaho Power officials proposed the deal with OTEC. Officials from the two utilities started discussing details in the spring of 2025.

Rate increases

Both Hoover and Sven Berg, an Idaho Power spokesperson, said in February they don’t expect dramatic changes in bills, for OTEC members or Idaho Power customers who would join OTEC, as a result of the proposed deal.

Both companies cited a 2024 survey from the Edison Electric Institute, which found the monthly bill for a customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours was $116.27 for OTEC, and $118.60 for Idaho Power.

Hoover said on Feb. 23 that those figures are for the entire bill — including the cost of electricity used as well as the delivery charge, franchise fee and other fees.

She said the utilities calculate bills differently.

Idaho Power charges higher rates as customers use more power, for instance, while OTEC bills include a delivery charge of $38.50 per month for residential customers, Hoover said.

According to the application filed with the PUC, Idaho Power, if the OTEC purchase doesn’t happen, would have to boost its rates for Oregon customers in 2027 by about 17.6%. The company hasn’t increased its base rate for Oregon customers since 2024.

An OTEC rate increase due to the purchase would be “less than one-third” of the projected Idaho Power increase, according to the application, which states that the transaction “is expected to provide a lower and more stable, long-term, rate trajectory for OTEC member/owners” in the Oregon areas that Idaho Power serves now.

According to a joint press release from OTEC and Idaho Power on May 21, OTEC would increase rates after the sale by approximately 5.7% compared to Idaho Power’s current rates for its Oregon customers.

“Either path forward requires some rate adjustment to reflect the current cost of service,” the press release states.

The application st...

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