The following is a transcript of the Sept. 21, 2026, episode of Public Power Now. Learn more about subscribing to Public Power Now at PublicPower.org/Podcasts. Some quotes may have been edited for clarity.
Paul Ciampoli
Welcome to the latest episode of Public Power Now.
I'm Paul Ciampoli, APPA's News Director.
Our guest on this episode is Keith Hormann, Director of Oregon public power utility Forest Grove Light and Power Department.
The utility is a full-service electric utility providing electric service to customers in Forest Grove, Oregon and surrounding areas.
So Keith, just kind of get our conversation started, I want to give you the opportunity for listeners who may not be familiar with Forest Grove Light and Power.
Could you provide an overview of the utility?
Keith Hormann
Yeah, We're a small consumer-owned utility. We're located about 25 miles straight west of Portland.
We serve approximately about 11,000 customers and are surrounded by a larger investor-owned utility.
If you're not familiar with the Northwest, it's called Portland General Electric.
We're what is called in the Northwest a full requirements customer of the Bonneville Power Administration, or in other words, we have no generation. We purchase all of our power from BPA.
And we're actually a part of the city, one of the 13 departments that the city owns.
Paul Ciampoli
And so kind of just diving into specific topics that I want to discuss to you.
The genesis of my wanting to speak with you was news related to undergrounding of distribution lines.
And so I want to ask you about how the utility is improving resilience in its community through the placement of distribution lines underground. As you know, the utility has completed a project to move two-thirds of a mile of a main electricity line underground.
And turning on the newly underground lines marked the first completed project through the Oregon Department of Energy's Grid Resilience Grant Program.
So kind of a two-part question. One, can you provide additional details on how this project will boost resiliency? And, second, are there any other infrastructure projects either underway or planned by the utility you'd like to highlight?
Keith Hormann
Yeah, thank you for that opportunity to talk about this project.
It was definitely a win-win all the way around. The project was actually a little bit bigger than just the portion from the Department of Energy grant.
We actually undergrounded approximately about five miles of line to underground in different parts.
And since we're predominantly an urban utility, we don't have a large amount of wildland urban interface, but we have several spots in our rural service area that the lines run right up to the coastal range and what we call the Tillamook National Forest.
So the portion of the Oregon Department of Energy grant, where that really helped us is it allowed us to take on a bigger chunk and put, like you said, about a mile of mainline distribution circuit underground, which was a little bit out of our reach with our capital funding. So it really helped close the case on that.
So what it's achieved for us is we pretty much have addressed all of our wildfire mitigation higher risk areas and so we feel much more comfortable about that.
But on top of that, we're going to eliminate a lot of our tree-related outages, which are predominantly related to these rural areas.
So I think it was, like I said, a win-win situation. We're able to knock out two totally big projects for us.
And as far as other projects, like most all utilities, we have our normal pole replacements and underground cable replacements.
But we've also been real diligent and we've upgraded all of our substations except one.
So we have new transformers, new system bus work and everything.
And we're working on that last one as we speak. So that's a big one.
And we're also starting construction of a transmission tie line between two of our substations, a 115 kV tie line that will give us quite a bit of added reliability.
So those are kind of the two other bigger projects that we're working on right now.
Paul Ciampoli
So just some quick follow-up questions if I could.
So starting with what you last talked about in terms of the substation upgrade and the tie line, any timing on when those might be completed?
Keith Hormann
As we all know with material acquisition, it's totally dependent on that. We're probably looking at this last substation and tie line probably about a year and a half from now for completion.
Transformers are basically at least a year out, so it'll be dependent on the material.
Paul Ciampoli
Okay, yeah, so you're alluding to the ongoing supply chain challenges?
Keith Hormann
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's gotten better, but it's still nowhere like it was prior, pre-COVID.
Paul Ciampoli
Right, okay.
And just kind of circling back to the grant program, I was wondering if you kind of maybe at a high level, what was the process like in terms of getting the funding through that state, that grid resilience grant program?
Keith Hormann
I won't say it was completely smooth, but a lot of that was a learning process by our utility mainly. And in the end, it all worked out very well and the Oregon Department of Energy staff were absolutely amazing to work with.
They basically held our hand and walked us through the process, so overall, it was a great experience with a few bumps along the way.
Paul Ciampoli
And now that you have that experience under your belt, presumably if you decided to pursue additional grant funding opportunities, maybe not even necessarily through that program, I would imagine that would make it make life a little easier for you.
Keith Hormann
Oh yeah, we know how to do it well now, so it'd be much, much easier.
Paul Ciampoli
Okay, and then last follow-up question on this subject. So I mean, it sounds like the undergrounding project was pretty significant.
So as of today, I guess there's no anticipation in terms of additional undergrounding of distribution lies at this point?
Keith Hormann
No, there is, but there's no additional plans for regarding wildfire mitigation -- this cleared us of all those areas.
We have other areas where we're selectively picking to put some overhead lines that still have some tree exposure, but not the wildfire exposure or other reasons that we're putting underground as they age.
Paul Ciampoli
And just one other question.
So with respect to wildfires, I mean, I guess I think it's fair to say that California gets a lot of headlines in terms of the last couple years, but how big of a threat are wildfires in Oregon at this point in time?
Keith Hormann
Quite large. Yeah. Not so much for us since we're predominantly urban. Rural electric cooperatives, they're fighting it all the time.
As a matter of fact, I believe this season is going down as the largest wildfire season on record, I believe.
Paul Ciampoli
So just switching gears here, I want to talk about distributed energy resources and specifically solar.
In researching and preparing for this interview, you noted the solar array project, the utility has been pursuing it, and the utility received a federal grant to install a solar array in which the utility will monetize the production of it and forward the proceeds to the utility's low-income energy assistance fund to help customers pay for the electric bills.
So two questions for you.
One, can you provide additional details on the project itself, including monetizing its production, and when will the solar array be installed?
Keith Hormann
Yeah, thanks for letting me talk about it. It's kind of a really interesting and fun project for us.
We did receive a congressionally funded federal HUD grant, and this grant covers the cost to install about a 200 kW solar array. We're siting on city-owned property right next to one of our substations.
But what we're doing with it is the interesting part, that we as a utility will actually monetize the generation that comes out of it at our cost and take that funding and push that into our, we already have an existing low-income energy assistance fund, but we'll be able to add additional dollars into that.
Because as you know, with all our disadvantaged customers, everybody's trying to stretch every dollar they can these days and whatever we can do to help the folks that are struggling, we certainly want to try.
And this project fit right into that to be able to pump some more money into that fund and be able to get that distributed where it's needed.
Paul Ciampoli
And does the utility have any kind of goals or state mandates as it relates to renewable energy?
Keith Hormann
We have mandates that just became effective this last year, 2025. It's called the Renewable Portfolio Standards.
So it's a little different with us since we are predominantly hydro already -- over 90% of our generation from the Bonneville Power Administration is hydro already.
But that remaining portion, 5% has to come from renewable power, yes.
Paul Ciampoli
And I was just curious, the mechanisms under which there's going to be the monetization of the production and proceeds going to the low-income energy assistance fund.
This is the first I'd heard of such a mechanism or setup.
Do you have any sense of how unique this is?
Keith Hormann
We have an existing net metering policy in place where, as our customers install solar, we'll credit them for that and then do annual true ups.
So what we're going to do is treat it the same way that we'll just credit the generation, but we'll actually just transfer the funds inside our own accounts into our low income fund.
And I don't think I answered when it was going to be done, but it's under design right now. We're getting close to 90% design.
We expect construction to start this fall yet in winter and hopefully be online by spring is our goal.
Paul Ciampoli
Getting back to the overall mechanism, could you describe how you're communicating to your customers, you know, that the fact that funds [are] going into this low-income energy assistance fund?
Keith Hormann
Yeah, we're using the normal methods. We have a city communication team that will be pushing everything out by social media.
We actually have the Oregon congressmen are planning to be here for the ribbon cutting.
So it will get some fairly good newsworthy bits about it going out here when we get a little closer.
Paul Ciampoli
On the topic of distributed energy resources, one subject that comes up a lot of times this energy storage and not necessarily as it relates to the specific solar array, but in general, have you guys looked at energy storage as a possibility?
Keith Hormann
We have to a small degree, not to any large degree. And this project, as I mentioned, is 200 kW.
Well, you know, it'll absorb by load. It'll use some of our purchases from BPA.
So if we were to look at something larger, then yeah, battery storage would definitely be of interest.
Paul Ciampoli
And so Keith, the last question I had for you, I wanted to talk about data centers, which as you know is a really hot topic these days in the energy sector.
And you noted prior to the interview that the utility is serving a new data center.
So three questions for you.
Could you provide additional details on the data center? Also, what steps did the utility take to ensure that its customers don't face rate increases to pay for the data center?
And finally, would you tell our listeners the process for the utility in terms of working with a data center developer and any lessons learned for other smaller public power utilities that may encounter data center proposals?
Keith Hormann
Yeah, it's been quite an experience for us, as you can imagine. Being a small utility, we've had quite a learning curve.
Our city is located right next to the neighboring utilities, the IOUs, high tech sector, so there's a lot of data centers nearby.
So that spillover has come to us and we've had a lot of requests. We have one very active project, which we started back in 2021. And just coincidentally, just last, about two weeks ago, we energized the phase one of the data center.
And just to provide a little context with this one project, the first phase is about a 75 megawatt peak, 50 average megawatt project. And the second phase is larger, and it's a few years down the road. It'll be around a 200 megawatt project.
But to put that in comparison, our city, we run at about 32 average megawatts and our just peak was 62.
So this has taken us into new ground that we were very inexperienced in.
So it's been, like I said, quite a learning curve.But I think what we have learned and what I would probably recommend to everyone that is in the same situation when you don't have that prior knowledge -- bring in the experts.
The one thing that we've done very well is bring in the experts from legal, financial consulting. We brought in transmission consultants to work with our BPA issues. So without their valuable input, we'd have really struggled.
So as a result of that, we've created better line extension agreements where the data center has had to completely cover the cost of two substation expansions, a couple of miles of 345 kV distribution lines to the data center sites.
We've also created energy services agreements. We have changed our rate schedules to reflect the risks associated with the single large load and the exposure we have for the rest of the city.
So we've strived really hard from the beginning to remove as much, if not at all, risk from the rest of our rate base. I think we've achieved that fairly well.
Paul Ciampoli
And it seems like things are kind of cresting now nationwide in terms of how data center developers and utilities are kind of recognizing that they need to proactively engage and communicate with communities.
So how did that go in terms of your community and customers as it relates to this data center?
Keith Hormann
Well, there was a lot of pushback [with] the common reasons.
One of the positives with this data center developer, they are not consuming the water resource that a lot of them do.
They have a different type of method, so that's been beneficial.
And the bulk of it was industrial land that was next to a residential area.
So there's been a lot of struggle with that.
As far as the electrical side, we've been communicating with everyone that we are taking as much risk mitigation measures as possible, but we are, we have an obligation to serve.
Where I can speak to the load is basically how we treat it. It could be a data center, a food processor, or if you've ever had old trapper beef jerky, that plant is located here in Forest Grove, and they're one of our largest customers.
So we're treating it the same way.
Paul Ciampoli
And, now that you have this experience of this first data center, it sounds like there's still more possibilities in terms of, the expansion of it, but would you consider serving additional data centers or you kind of kind of leave things where they're at this point?
Keith Hormann
We'll talk to anyone that comes through the door and we take that seriously. We have an obligation to serve within our service territory.
So if you're a gas station, a residential subdivision, or a data center, we're going to speak with you and go over what's needed to move ahead with your project.
Paul Ciampoli
Well, Keith, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us today.
It's really been an illuminating conversation, and I want to thank you again for taking the time to speak with us.
Keith Hormann
Oh, absolutely, Paul. I really appreciate this opportunity.
Paul Ciampoli
Keith, you have an open invitation to return at some point in the future as a guest, so I just wanted to put that out there.
Keith Hormann
I appreciate that. If we have some big updates, I'll reach out to you.
Paul Ciampoli
Thanks for listening to this episode of Public Power Now, which is produced by Julio Guerrero, graphic and digital designer at APPA. I'm Paul Ciampoli and we'll be back with more from the world of public power next week.
