McMinnville Water & Light serves approximately 75 square miles of electric service territory and is committed to excellence, delivering reliable, low cost, electric power and professional responsive customer service to the community. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) supplies McMinnville Water & Light’s electrical load through BPA transmission lines to McMinnville Water & Light’s seven substations. From the substations, power is distributed to approximately 17,250 customers by McMinnville Water & Light overhead and underground facilities. The remaining supply is provided by the Grant County Public Utility District and Waste Management Renewable Energy.
Workload Statistics
Transmission: 115 KV transmission line = 11.2 miles
Distribution System: Approximately 333 miles of primary distribution lines (52% overhead and 48% underground).
Substations: Seven substations and 12 power transformers
Feeders: 28 Distribution Feeders
Electrical Consumption:
Peak Winter Demand = 174.4 MW
Peak Summer Demand = 153.2 MW
Hydro Generation
McMinnville Water & Light purchases approximately 97% of its power from BPA. The other 3% of MW&L’s power supply comes from Grant County PUD, which is all hydro generation.
BPA’s resource portfolio (2025 statistics) consists of:
- 78.3% hydroelectric energy generated by the Federal Columbia River Power System
- 10% nuclear
- and 11.3% nonspecified*
*Nonspecified purchases are purchases made from another system without knowledge of specific fuel type
88% (hydro+nuclear) of BPA’s resources are carbon-free.
Federal Columbia River Power System (PDF)
Oregon Renewable Portfolio Standard
In 2007, Oregon enacted Senate Bill 838, the Oregon Renewable Energy Act (Act), which created an RPS that all Oregon electric utilities must follow. The purpose of the RPS is to decrease Oregon utilities’ reliance on fossil fuels for electric generation and increase their use of renewable energy sources. In 2016, Senate Bill 1547 further increased RPS targets for investor-owned utilities (IOUs) only. The statute governing RPS compliance reporting, ORS 469A.170, states: “A consumer-owned utility shall make the report to the members or customers of the utility.” As such, MWL reports the annual results of its RPS compliance to the MWL Commission and MWL publishes those results on its website each year and otherwise makes this information available to its customers.