Natural gas infrastructure is seeing a surge in demand across the Pacific Northwest, as data center construction along Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge forces electric utilities to seek new sources of power generation — a trend with potential ripple effects for energy consumers and grid planners throughout the broader Treasure Valley and Intermountain West region.
Data Centers Rewrite the Load Map
The scale of the power demand shift is striking. Umatilla Electric Cooperative in Oregon recorded load growth exceeding 500% over the past decade, driven largely by the concentration of data center facilities built along the Columbia River Gorge. The cooperative has responded by purchasing greater volumes of gas and coal-generated electricity on the wholesale market to keep up.
Across Oregon and Washington, more than 100 electric utilities serve residential and commercial customers, but the new data center load has not been spread evenly. Just two private investor-owned utilities — PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric — along with four public utility districts and cooperatives, have absorbed nearly all of the new data center demand added over the past decade. Five of those utilities are now purchasing substantially more power of unspecified origin from wholesale markets than they were ten years ago.
Tech giants have played a central role in driving that demand. Amazon has invested more than $60 billion in Oregon since 2010. Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan said the company is “committed to being a responsible neighbor in Oregon,” pointing to its infrastructure spending and job creation in the state. The company also notes its data centers operate roughly 10% more efficiently than the industry average on energy use.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has pledged to reach 100% renewable energy coverage globally and is working to transition its backup generators in Washington state to renewable biofuel. However, the broader industry buildout has outpaced those individual commitments. Public utility districts have been permitting gas-powered generators to serve as backup energy sources for data center campuses, and some data center operators are also installing gas generation equipment on-site.
Climate Goals Under Pressure
The gas infrastructure expansion is colliding with state-level climate policy in both Oregon and Washington. Oregon has set targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 45% below 1990 levels by 2035 and 80% below by 2050. State energy modeling from 2023 suggested Oregon was on pace to meet those benchmarks — but a more recent analysis projected the 2035 target would not be achieved until 2037, citing data center demand growth, changes to federal fuel economy standards, and policy rollbacks under the Trump administration.
Reaching the established climate goals would require replacing at least 65 million megawatt hours of coal and natural gas generation with renewable sources across the two states — a significant undertaking even without the accelerating data center load added to the equation.
Advocacy groups are raising alarms. Audrey Leonard, a staff attorney with the Hood River-based Columbia Riverkeeper, argued that the energy transition was already facing serious headwinds: “In the absence of enough renewable energy supply, we’re seeing utilities turn more to gas in this situation… data centers are turning that challenge into a crisis.”
At the federal level, data centers have been used as justification for keeping Washington’s largest coal-burning power plant in operation. Puget Sound Energy has also contracted for six new gas turbines to be installed at an undisclosed Washington location, further cementing natural gas as a near-term solution for utilities scrambling to meet demand.
Impact on Regional Energy Planning
The Washington State Department of Ecology has noted that electricity purchased from unspecified wholesale sources carries emissions roughly equivalent to natural gas generation — meaning utilities that simply buy more power from the open market are not necessarily reducing their carbon footprint. Oregon’s unspecified power purchases have increased steadily since 2019, a trend the state’s energy analysts are watching closely.
For residents and businesses in Idaho and the broader Treasure Valley, the energy market dynamics in neighboring states carry real-world implications. Grid reliability, wholesale power prices, and utility planning decisions in Oregon and Washington affect power flows across the entire Intermountain West. As Boise and surrounding communities continue to grow — and as local infrastructure projects face their own cost pressures — regional energy market trends like these will shape what ratepayers see on their monthly bills for years to come.
What Comes Next
Analysts and advocacy organizations are urging state regulators in Oregon and Washington to revise utility planning rules to account for data center load growth. Residents in Ada County and across Idaho with concerns about regional energy reliability and utility costs can contact the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, which monitors wholesale power market participation by Idaho utilities, to learn more about how regional grid changes may affect local rates.