Q. Why am I not receiving my e-mail notification for my online bill?

The automatic e-mail from PGE may be filtered by your e-mail service provider. Please contact your provider for instructions on how to add paperlessbill@pgn.com to your list of allowed senders. Please be aware that if you have set your e-mail account to block or filter messages from unknown senders, you may not receive our e-mail messages unless you enable e-mail delivery from “@pgn.com.”

Q. What is the difference between residential and commercial rates?

Residential rates apply to single-family dwellings, apartments, mobile homes, and houseboats. A residential dwelling must contain permanent facilities for sleeping, bathing, and cooking. Commercial rates apply to large or extra facilities (i.e., garage, shop, or barn) used for business purposes, hobbies, or storage without permanent facilities for sleeping, bathing, and cooking.

Q. What is a prorated bill?

A “prorated” bill could be one of two things:

• There was a rate change during a billing period; some days in the billing period were billed at the old rate and some were billed at the new rate.
• The billing period is more than 34 days or less than 27 days. A regular bill has from 27 to 34 billing days. The prorate will only affect non-electrical charges, i.e. the Basic Charge. Initial and closing bills are normally prorated since they are more than 34 days or less than 27 days. However, when the first and final bills are contained in a single billing period, what we call a “first and final” bill, it is not prorated. It is billed the full Basic Charge.

Receiving a prorated bill does not mean that PGE did not read your meter or “estimated” your bill.

Q. When will I receive a response to e-mail sent to PGE?

We generally respond to customers within two business days.

Q. What are cookies? Why do I need them to use PortlandGeneral.com?

A cookie is a small text file stored on the visitor’s hard drive. We use cookies for the following reasons:

• To indicate whether you are signed in as a registered user of the Web site.
• To enhance your privacy and security while doing business with PGE. If you step away from your computer or don’t sign out, you will be signed out automatically after 10 idle minutes.
• To ensure your Web experience will not be disrupted if a load-balancing server is down or busy.

Our cookies expire 10 to 20 minutes after the visitor leaves the PGE Web site. The cookie file remains on the hard drive and is renewed upon subsequent visits, but no information in the file is reused, matched or associated with any other information.

Q. How do I change my e-mail address?

Complete and submit the Change Your E-mail Address and Password form with the new e-mail address you want to use for your PortlandGeneral.com online access. (If you aren’t signed in, you will be prompted to sign in with your current e-mail address and password.)

Q. How do I change my password?

Complete and submit the Change Your E-mail Address and Password form with the new password you want to use for your PortlandGeneral.com online access. (If you aren’t signed in, you will be prompted to sign in with your current e-mail address and password.)

Q. What if I forgot my password?

Complete and submit the “Forgot Your Password?” form with the e-mail address you use when you sign in to PGE’s online services. Once we verify your e-mail address in our records, we’ll send a temporary password to this address. Generally, you should receive your temporary password within minutes. However, there are some circumstances which could delay e-mail delivery by several hours. We recommend that you change your password the next time you sign in.

Q. How do I change the bank account number for my automatic monthly payments?

If you are signed up for automatic monthly payments, the last option available to you in the “Online Options” box (in the upper right-hand corner of the page) is “Change Bank Info for Monthly Payments.” Complete and submit that form to change your banking information. (If you aren’t signed in, you will be prompted to sign in with your current e-mail address and password.)

Q. Why can’t I cancel a payment I just made online?

Requests for online payment cancellation must be received the same day payment is made before 7 p.m. by contacting our Customer Service at 503-228-6322 or 800-542-8818.

Q. Can I make payment arrangements online?

Currently we do not offer payment arrangements online. If you would like to make payment arrangements or if you have received a disconnect notice, call Customer Service at 503-228-6322 or 800-542-8818.