Hillsboro's data center boom is helping drive a $2.3 billion regional electricity buildout that planners say must happen by 2032, according to a draft power plan released Aug. 13.

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council approved the draft Ninth Power Plan for public comment on Aug. 13, calling for Oregon, Washington, Idaho and western Montana to add more than 11,000 megawatts of new generation capacity. That's roughly a third of what the Northwest uses at peak demand during a heat wave, and data centers are the single largest near-term driver, projected to need about 4 additional gigawatts by 2030 alone.

For Hillsboro, which hosts 35 operating data centers across 436 acres and at least seven more under construction or in permitting, the plan frames the city's electricity crunch as a four-state problem with a four-state price tag.

"No single resource on its own will be able to meet our growing need for energy in the future," Jennifer Light, the council's director of power planning, said in a media briefing Aug. 13. "Rather, a regional portfolio of cost-effective resources will achieve the right balance of economics, efficiency, reliability, and adequacy."

What the plan proposes

The resource mix includes more than 9,000 MW of renewables, roughly 2,100 MW of natural gas, more than 5,000 MW of battery storage and more than 1,000 average-megawatts of energy efficiency. No new gas plants would be built in Oregon under the proposal due to the state's clean energy restrictions; most new gas capacity would go to Idaho and Montana.

The council estimates the portfolio's fixed cost at $2.3 billion in 2032, equivalent to about 0.15% of the four-state region's $1.46 trillion gross domestic product. The plan also proposes energy-efficiency standards specifically for new data centers and calls for operators to adopt flexible consumption practices, including demand response and use of backup generation.

The Bonneville Power Administration, which owns roughly 75% of the Pacific Northwest's grid, is legally required to acquire resources consistent with the council's strategy. BPA has "consistently expressed concerns" over the costs and complexity of the plan's energy conservation recommendations during the two-year planning process, according to Washington State Standard reporting.

Hillsboro connection

The plan lands less than a month after the Hillsboro City Council unanimously adopted a 120-day moratorium on new data center land use applications on July 27. Mayor Beach Pace said the city gave only one day's notice for that special meeting to prevent a rush of data center applications, as reported by The Oregonian.

Hillsboro's existing data centers host servers for Adobe, LinkedIn, Meta, TikTok and X, and receive $84 million in local property tax breaks this year. As we reported Aug. 17, the city is surveying residents on new data center zoning caps during the moratorium period.

The regional plan's timeline adds urgency: OPB reported the last 10 gigawatts the Northwest added took a full decade to develop. The Ninth Power Plan asks the region to match that pace in six years.

That's unprecedented speed.

Public comment on the draft plan is open through Oct. 16 at nwcouncil.org. The council will hold in-person and virtual hearings across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana in September and October; its next meeting is Sept. 9–10 in Portland. The final plan is expected by late 2026 or early 2027.