On the evening of July 31, Omaha Public Power District and our customers experienced a storm unlike any other we’ve seen. Sustained high winds with hurricane-force gusts caused major damage to several counties within our service territory, especially Douglas and Sarpy counties. More than 221,000 customers, half of our entire customer base, lost power – some for several hours and others for nearly eight days.
At this evening’s meeting of the OPPD Board of Directors, the board approved a resolution of appreciation for OPPD employees, forestry crews and mutual aid crews that worked tirelessly to restore power to those impacted. Utility leaders shared a post-storm report with directors during their committee meetings Tuesday, detailing the work behind this massive power restoration effort.
“We came into this storm well-practiced,” OPPD President and CEO Javier Fernandez said. “It was the sixth storm-related outage event we’ve worked through in just over three months’ time.”
Still, this event was one for the record books. Winds were stronger, lasted longer, and covered a broader densely populated area than any other in OPPD’s history. It covered 1,090 square miles and caused a great deal more damage than the next biggest storm event, which happened July 9, 2021. That storm knocked out power to 188,000 customers.
More help to fix more damage
Utility leaders said when the storm hit, its storm team, made up of employees throughout the company, mobilized immediately. They put out calls for mutual aid and tree crew support and began coordinating with the cities and counties affected, with Douglas and Sarpy counties the hardest hit. They also got to work to set up the largest staging area the utility has ever needed for a record number of support crews, in the parking lot of Baxter Arena in Omaha.
Other utilities, including many fellow public power providers from Nebraska, as well as private electrical contractors and tree crews answered the call immediately, making their way to our area by the next morning. Help continued to pour in from as far away as Ohio and Wisconsin. At our peak, we had 175 mutual aid crews and 184 tree crews working 16-hour days alongside our crews to bring power back to our customers. The response was unprecedented.
All told, OPPD had a team of 1,500 working on the front lines, including dozens of retired employees who came back to help our out-of-town crews with the particulars of our system. The utility also had hundreds of employees working behind the scenes. Many coordinated hotel rooms, meals and snacks. Dozens of employees volunteered to do laundry for the crews. Others ordered supplies needed to replace poles, restring wires and make other repairs. Customer service representatives worked with customers over the phone to provide information, take outage reports and provide progress updates as possible. And the list goes on. Among the most critical work done was within our plants, to ensure we had enough power to serve our customers’ needs 24-7 during intense summer heat.
“Compared with the 2021 storm, roughly 30% more poles and 40% more fuses were damaged,” said Matt Hardebeck, director of Customer Experience and Operations. “In addition, twice as many transformers and three times as many cross arms were damaged, compared with the storm three years ago.”
Hardebeck noted that the damage could have been even worse if not for the utility’s work to harden the system since that 2021 storm. That work continues, in addition to other ongoing efforts to minimize the impacts of severe weather. OPPD continues to devote more resources to tree-trimming throughout OPPD’s 13-county service territory. With year-round work, the trees along each of OPPD’s circuits are trimmed about every seven years. Fernandez said the utility is aiming to make that every five years.
“We will continue to evaluate what’s working well and where we may be able to improve during these storm events,” Fernandez said.
SD-7: Environmental Stewardship
Prior to the severe weather we experienced, OPPD had planned to share proposed updates to Strategic Directive 7: Environmental Stewardship with the board this week. The directive includes a goal for OPPD to be a net zero carbon emitter by 2050. Potential revisions may include interim metrics toward this goal. OPPD leaders are now planning to share a version with proposed changes next month, and that will also be posted to OPPD’s website for public review and comment prior to a future board vote.
Other action
In other action, directors:
- Approved the May and June 2024 financial reports, June 24 meeting minutes and the August 15, 2024, agenda.
- Awarded a labor contract to Watts Electric in the amount of $1,760,777 for construction labor related to transmission system modifications including relocating a 161kV transmission line for a southwest Omaha road widening project; replacing 69kV and 345kV wood structures that have reached the end of their useful life; installing air flow spoilers on a 69kV transmission line to reduce icing concerns. Work will take place from September to December.
- Received the monthly President’s Report, available to view at oppd.com/BoardMeeting.
Next board meetings
The next all-committees meeting will be Tuesday, September 17, 10 a.m., in person at Blue Cross Blue Shield, 1919 Aksarben Dr. in Omaha and virtually via Webex. The meeting link and instructions will be available at OPPD.com/CommitteeAgenda, beginning about 9:45 a.m. The next monthly board meeting is Thursday, September 19, 5 p.m., in person at the Legislative Chamber of the Omaha Civic Center, 1819 Farnam St. in Omaha, as well as virtually via Webex. Members of the public who wish to attend virtually will be able to access the meeting link and instructions at OPPD.com/BoardAgenda, beginning at 4:45 p.m.