OAR 860-038-0300: Electric Company and Electricity Service Suppliers Labeling Requirements

(1) The purpose of this rule is to establish requirements for electric companies and electricity service suppliers to provide price, power source, and environmental impact information necessary for consumers to exercise informed choice. (2) An electricity service provider must post a summary of the aggregated energy supply mix and associated emissions for the Direct Access load served in Oregon in the previous year. When historic data in unavailable, the ESS must use a reasonable estimate of future resource mix. The summary must be updated on November 15 of each year (or the next business day if November 15 falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday as defined by ORS 187.010) and either included on or via a link on its indicative pricing website as required under OAR 860-038- 0275. (3) For each service or product it offers, an electric company must provide price, power source, and environmental impact information to all residential consumers annually, or at a frequency prescribed by the Commission. The information must be based on the available service options. The information must be supplied consistent with the requirements prescribed by the Commission. The electric company must report price information for each service or product for residential consumers based on the average monthly bill and price per kilowatt-hour for the available service options. (4) An electric company and an electricity service supplier must provide price, power source and environmental impact information to nonresidential consumers consistent with the requirements and frequency prescribed by the Commission. An electric company and an electricity service supplier must report price information for nonresidential consumers as follows: (a) The price and amount due for each service or product that a nonresidential consumer is purchasing; (b) The rates and amount of state and local taxes or fees, if any, imposed on the nonresidential consumer; (c) The amount of any public purpose charge; and (d) The amount of any transition charge or credit. (5) For power supplied through its own generating resources, the electric company must report power source and environmental impact information based on the company's own generating resources, not the unspecified market purchase mix. An electric company's own resources include company-owned resources and wholesale purchases from specific generating units, less wholesale sales from specific generating units. An electric company's own resources do not include the non-energy attributes associated with purchases under the provisions of a net metering tariff or other power production tariff unless the electric company has separately contracted for the purchase of the Tradable Renewable Certificates. For net market purchases, the electric company must report power source and environmental impact information based on the unspecified market purchase mix. The electric company must report power source and environmental impact information for standard offer sales based on the unspecified market purchase mix. (6) For purposes of power source and environmental impact reporting, an electric company and an electricity service supplier should use the most recent unspecified market purchase mix unless the electric company or electricity service supplier is able to demonstrate a different power source mix and environmental impact. A demonstration of a different mix must be based on projections of the mix to be supplied during the current calendar year. Power source must be reported as the percentages of the total product supply including the following: (a) Coal; (b) Hydroelectricity; (c) Natural gas; (d) Nuclear; and (e) Other power sources including but not limited to new renewable resources, if over 1.5 percent of the total power source mix. (7) Environmental impact must be reported for all retail electric consumers using the annual emission factors for the most recent available calendar year applied to the expected production level for each source of supply included in the electricity product. Environment impacts reported must include at least: (a) Carbon dioxide, measured in lbs./kWh of CO2 emissions; (b) Sulfur dioxide, measured in lbs./kWh of SO2 emissions; (c) Nitrogen oxides, measured in lbs./kWh of NOx emissions; and (d) Mercury, measured in lbs./kWh of Hg emission. (8) Every bill to a direct access consumer must contain the electricity service supplier's and the electric company's toll-free number for inquiries and instructions as to those services and safety issues for which the consumer should directly contact the electric company. (9) The electricity service supplier must provide price, power source, and environmental impact in all contracts and marketing information. (10) The electric company must provide price, power source, and environmental impact in all standard offer marketing information. (11) By September 1, each electric company and each electricity service supplier making any claim other than unspecified market purchase mix must file a reconciliation report for the prior calendar year on forms prescribed by the Commission. The report must provide a comparison of the power source mix and emissions of all of the seller's certificates, purchase or generation with the claimed power source mix and emissions of all of the seller's products and sales. (12) Each electricity service supplier and electric company owning or operating generation facilities shall keep and report such operating data about its generation of electricity as may be specified by order of the Commission.