Oregon city worries legal pot will raise electric rates for all

Dive Brief:

The city of Ashland, Ore., is worried that power rates will rise when legal marijuana hits the state this summer, bringing with it an expected increase in power demand.
Because Ashland is a city-owned utility purchasing power from the Bonneville Power Administration, increased consumption could raise the city's rates broadly and not just for those growing pot, the Ashland Daily Tidings reports.
Legal marijuana grow operations have become a challenge for the Pacific Northwest, which must navigate conflicting state and federal laws while also coping with the intense power requirements to grow pot.

Dive Insight:

The efficiency — or lack thereof — of marijuana grow operations is increasingly becoming an issue as more states legalize the drug. And it's a complicated issue because utilities are wary of offering rebates and incentives while marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I controlled substance at the federal level.

Ashland City Administrator Dave Kanner has filed comments with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, indicating the municipality is worried about the possibility that power rates may be impacted for all ratepayers and not just those using more power. Because the city gets its power from the BPA, which prices power in tiers, a single large user could impact rates for everyone.

"Needless to say, a single large-scale indoor growing operation could easily push Ashland (or other municipal utilities or PUDs) into Tier 2 rates," Kanner said in his comments, published by the Daily Tidings. "This then becomes a cost burden that is spread across the entire customer base; I would suggest unfairly so.”

Last year the Northwest Power and Conservation Council studied the potential impacts of legalization, noting that growing four indoor pot plants requires the same power as 29 refrigerators. And indoor growers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana are projected to use 240 MW by 2035. Following legalization of the drug in Washington state in 2012, marijuana operations could grow electricity demand between 60 MW and 160 MW over the next 20 years, according to the report.