Reliability, resiliency and future growth prioritized in OPPD’s 2025 Corporate Operating Plan

At its monthly meeting tonight, the Omaha Public Power District Board of Directors approved a new $2.3 billion Corporate Operating Plan for 2025. The plan will help ensure a reliable, resilient power supply for customers in the face of record load growth, new planning-reserve margin requirements and extreme weather this year that drove up costs. 

Included in the plan is an average rate increase of 6.3% across all customer categories. Residential customers will see an 8.4% increase, or roughly $9.44 monthly on a $113 average bill. All rate adjustments will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. 

Extreme weather this year accounts for approximately one-quarter of the proposed increase. Severe winter storms, floods, tornadoes and hurricane-force winds battered OPPD’s service territory. A major July 31 windstorm caused the largest customer damage in OPPD’s history and reinforced the need for increased vegetation management, as many outages were caused by fallen trees. 

“These large weather events had a significant and unanticipated impact this year,” said OPPD Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bishop. “The 2025 Corporate Operating Plan will also help us invest in reliability, resiliency and growth and allow us to modernize our technology and facilities for our customers and employees. This will come in the form of increased capital investment in our generation resources and grid, and more funding for critical activities such as vegetation management and headcount.” 

The increase includes an average 4.9% general rate increase and a 0.4% increase from the Fuel and Purchased Power Agreement, which is a line item on bills. It also includes a 1% increase from the Rate Stabilization Account to help cover some of the unanticipated costs from this year’s severe weather. The FPPA is a commonly used industry practice that helps manage costs outside of a utility’s control, such as fluctuating fuel prices as well as power purchased on the energy market. 

The FPPA and general rate adjustments for each customer group follow. Rate adjustments vary slightly by customer group, as they correlate with how customers use the system along with additional investments needed to maintain reliable, resilient service for each respective customer group. 

• Residential: 8% general rate increase plus 0.4% FPPA increase for a total impact of 8.4%
• Commercial: 4.1% general rate increase plus 0.5% FPPA increase for a total impact of 4.6%  
• Industrial: 5.1% general rate increase plus 0.3% FPPA increase for a total impact of 5.4%   
• Lighting: 8% general rate increase plus 0.1% FPPA increase for a total impact of 8.1%   
• Wholesale: 8% general rate increase plus 0.6% FPPA increase for a total impact of 8.6%  

Bishop said several factors are driving the rate action. There has been an increase in the average price to serve our existing and new customers’ electric load, including higher purchased power prices. This accounts for the proposed FPPA adjustment.  

In addition, OPPD continues to invest in work that supports reliability, resiliency and the overall health of our system during a transformational time for OPPD and the industry — all while inflationary and supply chain pressures continue to affect costs. 

To support reliability, the preliminary COP includes a $12 million increase to the tree-trimming budget, bringing the total investment to $29 million for 2025. OPPD wants to be able to cut back trees near electric lines more often. Currently, each circuit throughout our 5,000-square-mile service territory is trimmed every seven or eight years. The goal is to get that down to every five years or so. 

“We know that even a small billing increase can create hardships for some of our customers,” said Vice President of Customer Service Tim McAreavey. “Therefore, we encourage anyone struggling to pay their bill to call us. We want to help you find workable solutions, so you don’t fall behind.” 

The utility has a range of assistance programs for those who qualify. Some of these programs involve collaboration with other organizations. For more information, visit OPPD.com/EAP or call 402-536-4131. 

The adjustments OPPD is proposing are consistent with other utilities’ rate increases. Among 10 peer utilities in the Midwest and elsewhere, the average increase is 7.6%. Even with the general rate and FPPA increases proposed for 2025, OPPD’s electricity rates remain among the most competitive in the region and nation. 

Other action 

In other action, directors:

• Approved the October 2024 Financial Report, November 2024 Meeting Minutes, and the December 19, 2024, meeting agenda. 
• Accepted the monitoring report for Strategic Directive 8: Employee Relations. Acceptance means the board finds the district sufficiently in compliance with the directive. 
• Approved the sale of a portion of property located at the Southwest Corner of 168th Street and Ida Street in Douglas County, Neb. 
• Approved the acquisition of property rights for utility operations infrastructure projects. 
• Corrected a typographical error from a previously approved resolution and ratified actions related to eminent domain proceedings for the Q Street Transmission and Distribution Repositioning Project to widen Q Street from 192nd to 204th Street. 
• Authorized OPPD management to reject three bids received for the procurement of coal handling at grade reclaim feeder equipment for Nebraska City Station, as the bids were not legally responsive, and instead enter into a negotiated contract or contracts. 
• Authorized OPPD management to negotiate a contract for contracts for materials and installation of traveling water screens, supporting work and associated equipment at North Omaha and Nebraska City Stations.
• Authorized OPPD management to reject one bid received for a 345-kV shunt reactor as it was legally and technically non-responsive and instead enter into a negotiated contract. The equipment will support reliability and transmission system expansion in the district. 
• Approved a declaration to reimburse 2025 capital expenditures with tax-exempt bond proceeds. 
• Recognized the contributions of retiring director Janece Mollhoff through a resolution of appreciation. 

Next board meetings  

The next all-committees meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 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, Jan. 16 at 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.