OTEC’s Proposed purchase of Idaho Power’s Oregon Territory

Idaho Power’s Oregon Customers To Join Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative

We’re excited to announce that Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative (OTEC) has entered into an agreement to assume ownership of Idaho Power’s Oregon service territory. If approved, this would mean OTEC would expand to serve more Eastern Oregon communities.

Oregon represents a very small portion of Idaho Power’s business (less than 3% by 2030), and reducing the complexity of operating in two states will help them focus on Idaho’s growing population and energy demand.

Because OTEC’s existing service territory is already connected to Idaho Power’s Oregon operations, we’re in a strong position to welcome these new members and support them efficiently. This acquisition gives us a unique opportunity to strengthen and expand the service we provide to our members.

Read the Joint Press Release

Idaho Power Announces Proposed Sale of Oregon Service Area to Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative

Frequently Asked Questions

Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative (OTEC) is one of Oregon's largest distribution cooperatives. Headquartered in Baker City, Oregon, with district offices in La Grande, John Day, and Burns, OTEC currently serves approximately 32,000 meters and nearly 60,000 residents in Baker, Grant, Harney and Union counties with a network of overhead and underground lines approximately 3,000 miles long. OTEC's distribution system represents an investment of more than $196 million.

OTEC fast facts:

32,000 meters
24,000 members
60,000 people served
6,700 square miles
11 members per line mile
Founded in 1988
Member-owned, governed by a 9-person elected Board

Can you really start an electric cooperative with seven hundred pennies? That's what three Baker City residents did in 1987. At the time, this part of northeastern Oregon was served by an investor-owned utility, CP National Corporation. Thus, in 1987, Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative was born.

To demonstrate community support for the cooperative, the trio collected a penny from each of 700 citizens, then secured a $33 million loan from the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC). A year later, the citizens of Baker, Grant, Harney and Union counties began operation of OTEC - one of the largest electric cooperatives in Oregon. OTEC is a living tribute to three amazing community leaders with a dream and 700 pennies.

If approved, the sale would include the distribution infrastructure that delivers power to roughly 20,000 Idaho Power meters in Malheur County and parts of Harney and Baker counties. This encompasses all of Idaho Power’s Oregon retail customers. Idaho Power would continue to own and operate transmission and generation resources that provide power to Oregon and across the region.

Oregon represents a very small portion of Idaho Power’s business (less than 3% by 2030) and reducing their service area to one state will help them focus on Idaho’s growing population and energy demand. Because OTEC’s existing service territory is already connected to Idaho Power’s Oregon operations, we’re in a strong position to welcome Idaho Power customers as new members and support them efficiently. This acquisition gives us a unique opportunity to strengthen and expand the service we provide to our members.
Increasing our membership gives OTEC additional economies of scale. Utilities have a lot of fixed costs, and growing our membership means those costs are spread across more individuals, which supports price stability over time.

Both OTEC and Idaho Power deliver top tier reliability. With additional resources in the expanded territory, we’ll continue to deliver on our co-op core value of reliability that current members know and trust OTEC for. Current members will continue to be served by the same dedicated linemen, engineering, operations and member service teams.

We will bring the same service standards to our new members. Our existing service centers and employees are close to Idaho Power’s Oregon territory, which will maintain or improve outage and emergency response times. We’ll also be opening a new office and service center as well as hiring employees in Ontario to provide response, maintenance, reliability and community support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Current Members

For current OTEC member-owners, the Board will review the co-op's financial position annually and will choose to retire capital credits as revenues allow, based on the same calculations that have been used historically. Our intent throughout this process is to maintain our commitment to economic stewardship, which includes continuing our standard capital credits system. OTEC will continue to follow the same process for identifying the amount and retirement schedule as it has always followed.

Frequently Asked Questions

New Members

While the specific impacts to new members’ bills will be presented as part of the regulatory review process, we’re all working hard to make sure the transaction is fair and beneficial to everyone. More information will be communicated as we go through the approval process with the Oregon Public Utility Commission and work toward implementing the ownership changes.

New members gain the benefits of a member-owned cooperative, which include:

Local Governance: As a member-owner of the co-op, you help shape its leadership. Members nominate and elect the Board of Directors, who guide the cooperative’s overall strategy and direction. If the acquisition is approved, additional board representation will be added for the new territory, and those seats would be filled through the co-op’s regular annual elections, giving you a direct voice in who represents your community.
Community Programs: As a member, you’re eligible to apply for co-op scholarships, participate in the Member-to-Member Bill Round Up Program, participate in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library which the co-op helps fund and mails a book monthly to kids under the age of 5, apply for charitable contributions and sponsorships, and access to Co-op Connections, a discount program for purchases at local and national businesses. These programs are demonstrations of a key cooperative principle, Concern for Community. Learn more about community programs at otec.coop/member-foundation
Service Excellence: OTEC provides exceptional, responsive service from our headquarters and field offices around Eastern Oregon. The co-op's satisfaction ratings place the co-op in the top 15% of cooperatives nationwide, with an American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) score of 85.
Capital Credits: Member-owned cooperatives pay profit back to their member-owners if annual profit exceeds expenses, which strengthens your wallet and the local economy. These credits are built up over several years based on the amount a member was billed. In 2025, OTEC returned $3 million in retired capital credits to members. See the question below for more information, or visit the capital credits page.
Expansive member programs: Learn more about our community programs at otec.coop/member-foundation and energy efficiency programs at otec.coop/energy-savings

As a member of Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative, you are also an owner of the cooperative (hence, OTEC member-owners). So rather than earning profits, OTEC invests a portion of those funds toward strengthening the operations that power your life and assigns the rest to you. These funds are called capital credits.

Capital credits are based on the dollar amount of electricity each member purchases. They vary from member to member and year to year. Each year, the OTEC Board of Directors determines what portion of capital credits can be returned to our membership through a process called “capital credit retirement.” After each year’s operating expenses have been paid, the remaining margins are allocated to the member’s capital credit account. OTEC uses the amount allocated to you for a time, but then returns this amount to members. When those allocations are retired, this is when you get actual “cash back” dollars.

New members will begin building their capital credits following the same process as current members. As new members’ investment in the cooperative builds, they will be eligible for capital credit retirements in the years ahead.

Learn more about capital credits at https://www.otec.coop/capital-credits.

The announcement of intent to transfer ownership marks one of many steps towards acquisition. We have finalized the deal with Idaho Power and will now work closely with them to present it to public utility regulators in both Idaho and Oregon as well as Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for deliberation and final approval. There will be no sudden changes, as we expect the entire process to take 10 months or longer. More concrete information will be available as we move through the process, and you’ll know the date your electricity provider changes in advance. As soon as we’re able, we’ll share more information with you.

Questions? Contact Us!

As we navigate the transaction, we will share updates as they are available. If you have questions about this project, call one of the office numbers listed on our website: https://www.otec.coop/contact-us or email communications@otec.coop.

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OTEC’s Proposed purchase of Idaho Power’s Oregon Territory

Idaho Power’s Oregon Customers To Join Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative

Read the Joint Press Release

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions? Contact Us!

Office Hours

Baker Office

Burns Office

John Day Office

La Grande Office

OTEC’s Proposed purchase of Idaho Power’s Oregon Territory

Idaho Power’s Oregon Customers To Join Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative

Read the Joint Press Release

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative?

How is OTEC financing the purchase of Idaho Power's Oregon service territory?

What part of the Idaho Power territory does this deal include?

Why is this sale being proposed?

Will this affect my reliability and response times?

Will any adjustments be needed to integrate Idaho Power's systems and equipment into OTEC's operations?

Will any jobs be added?

Frequently Asked Questions

How will this affect my rates?

Is the most recent rate increase due to this acquisition?

Will this affect my capital credits account or the timing of capital credits retirement?

Frequently Asked Questions

How will this affect my rates?

What are the benefits for me as a new OTEC member?

What are capital credits and how do they work?

What is the acquisition timeline? When can new members expect to start hearing from OTEC?

Questions? Contact Us!

Office Hours

Baker Office

Burns Office

John Day Office

La Grande Office