OPPD celebrates new renewable energy sources, wrestles with interim net zero goals
The Omaha Public Power District recently celebrated adding two new renewable energy sources to its lineup that are expected to help the utility meet surging demand for electricity and reach its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The utility announced Tuesday it had reached an agreement with developer EDF Renewables, effective Sept. 1, to purchase the power produced by an existing 300-megawatt wind farm near Milligan in Saline County. On Thursday, officials reported a new deal with Google to share generation from a planned 420-megawatt solar array with a 170-megawatt battery storage system in Pierce County. That's expected to begin operation in 2027.
Not counting the Pierce County project, the utility is slated to bring approximately 1,600 megawatts of nameplate capacity, or maximum output, online this year, Javier Fernandez, OPPD's president and CEO, said during a utility board meeting.
That includes 600 megawatts from the High Banks wind farm in northern Kansas through another partnership with Google, the Milligan wind farm, the recently opened 81-megawatt Platteview Solar array in Saunders County and 600 megawatts from two new natural gas plants — the Turtle Creek and Standing Bear Lake Stations — expected to fire up in the metro area yet this year.
"It is incredibly satisfying to see ... the hard work that we're doing so that we can keep Nebraska open for business," Fernandez said Thursday.
But that hard work isn't done, he said, and it's coming in the face of three major challenges: demand growth that's coming even faster than experts had forecast; climate change and the shifts in the utility's portfolio driven by its commitment to addressing it; and the aging of generating and transmission systems.
To address the biggest spike in electricity demand in the utility's 78-year history, OPPD's board a year ago approved a historic $2 billion expansion that will nearly double the utility's electric generating capacity over the next decade.
At that time, the board revised a strategic directive on system planning to add incremental timelines for when the utility needed to get new generating sources under contract.
Last week, utility officials reported that additional generation targeted for 2024 through 2028 had been completed, the latest addition being the electricity from the Milligan wind facility. In addition, several other projects laid out in the plan are on track for completion.
Utility board members praised the staff's efforts. They voted to acknowledge the utility was in compliance with the planning directive.
"We were all quite pleased to see that in many cases, we're either ahead of schedule or right on schedule," said board member Craig Moody, "and in this industry, especially at this time ... it's getting harder and harder to do."
Progress toward net zero but debate on goals
The utility board also has had discussions over the summer about adding interim goals for reducing greenhouse gases between now and 2050. The utility's goal of reaching net zero means that it would find offsets for any remaining carbon it is still emitting by that time. But setting them is proving complicated, given that the industry is so much in flux.
An initial draft of the revised goals, which fall under another strategic directive, called for net reductions of between 41% and 51% by 2027 and 74% to 84% by 2040 from a 2013 baseline.
As of a year ago, the utility already had cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 4 million tons. Utility officials have said the final conversion of the remaining coal-fired units at the utility's North Omaha power station to natural gas will result in an additional reduction of approximately 3.5 million tons by the end of 2027.
But during committee meetings earlier in the week, utility officials and some board members noted the challenges of balancing rapid emissions reductions with adding new and replacing aging infrastructure. The process is complicated by factors such as lingering supply-chain issues, longer time frames for bringing projects onto the grid, increases in power reserves required by regulators, as well as the need to keep the system reliable and electric rates affordable.
OPPD officials last year projected its expansion plan would require rate increases totaling roughly 10%, which would be phased in over four years beginning in 2027. How individual classes of ratepayers would be affected is not yet known. A consultant OPPD hired is in the first phase of studying future rate structures, which will include new, interactive meters.
On the generating front, the utility currently is required to maintain enough capacity to meet its peak demand plus a 15% margin in both summer and winter. But with winter becoming more of challenge for all utilities, OPPD's regional power pool has approved increasing the margin to 16% in the summer and 36% in the winter by 2026-27. Federal regulators are reviewing the proposed change.
Officials also noted that a number of new and emerging technologies, such as small modular nuclear plants, could offer future solutions but may take years to deploy.
Eric Williams, the OPPD board's chairman, noted that the Platteview Solar plant more than doubled the amount of solar generation in the state when it connected this summer. The Pierce County project would more than double that. He said he expects similar increases in battery storage capacity and reductions in its price in the coming years.
On Thursday, the utility posted a new version of the emissions directive, which the board will consider in October. It retains the 2027 target but calls for future interim metrics to be determined after the completion of the utility's 2026 integrated resource plan. The utility is required to file a new plan outlining generation changes needed to meet customer demand with the Western Area Power Administration every five years as part of its long-term contract to receive hydroelectric power from the organization.
The public can comment on the proposed revisions, available at , through Oct. 13.
Fernandez said he is still confident the utility can reach its net zero goal by 2050. The utility developed models to map out its system planning directive. Letting the next phase of planning play out will inform future environmental goals as well as systems plans.
"That doesn't mean we're not committed to getting there," he said of the net zero goal.
The proposed environmental policy revision also calls for recognizing the importance of environmental justice in OPPD's decision-making. That's defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, income and other factors when developing, enforcing and implementing environmental laws, regulations and policies.
Environmental group representatives praised the addition of that language. But they questioned why the utility isn't doing more to help residents and businesses become more energy efficient or generate their own energy. Both could help the utility avoid the need for more generation and emissions.
David Corbin, representing the Sierra Club's Missouri Valley Group, noted that other utilities have included energy efficiency and distributed generation in their plans.
OPPD officials have said they have a variety of energy reduction programs for business and residential customers.
Fernandez said the utility is enhancing incentives and making renters eligible for its smart thermostat program , which allows the utility to manage air conditioning during peak periods.
OPPD recorded a new system peak at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 25, when the Omaha temperatures reached 100 degrees. That was a Sunday, a day neither that program nor another that allows the utility to curtail customer use was in operation. Utility officials believe the system would have hit another record peak the following Monday, another super-heated day, if those programs hadn't been in place, he said, which demonstrates their value.
, 402-444-1066, twitter.com/julieanderson41
