OPPD’s environmental stewardship efforts and stakeholder outreach highlighted in reports to board of directors

Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) works on a number of fronts to be a good steward to our environment while also providing affordable, reliable power. During this week’s committee meetings for the OPPD Board of Directors, Vice President Cliff Fleener shared an update on the district’s progress in this area – the Strategic Directive (SD) 7: Environmental Stewardship monitoring report.

Fleener talked about the establishment of seven Green Teams, with one more in the works. These teams are composed of employees at various district locations who collaborate to identify ways to improve sustainability, such as reducing water and electricity usage and recycling. The utility has a broader goal of diverting 40% of waste from landfills by 2030. OPPD continues to work toward a greener vehicle fleet as well, aiming to reduce mobile vehicle emissions by 40% by 2040.

OPPD remains committed to net-zero carbon by 2050. From 2013 to 2023, OPPD realized a 40.6% carbon emission reduction. Fleener reiterated OPPD’s plan to retire three older gas units at North Omaha Station and transition the remaining two coal units to gas in 2027 that will generate an additional 3.5-million-ton reduction in Co2e emissions from the 2013 baseline.

The board accepted the monitoring report for SD-7, indicating they find the utility to be sufficiently in compliance with the directive. They also agreed upon some revisions to that policy going forward.

Changes include the addition of an environmental justice component and a recognition of energy supply, technology development and climate adaptation as being co-equally important to carbon reductions in addressing climate change. Interim metrics toward OPPD’s net-zero carbon goal will also be added. They will be determined by the utility’s next Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to be submitted to the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) in 2026 as part of a long-term hydroelectric power contract with the organization. The IRP serves as a roadmap for future generation and power purchase decisions.

Stakeholder Outreach and Engagement

The board also received a monitoring report on Strategic Directive 13, Stakeholder Outreach and Engagement (SD-13) this week. OPPD is committed to engaging our customers, the community and other stakeholders. The directive seeks to ensure an integrated, clear and transparent engagement process that provides meaningful ways for customers to participate and provide feedback, representative of the interested and/or impacted customer segments we serve. The policy also directs OPPD to share context with our customers around key decisions.

“We’ve taken a holistic view that’s helped evolve how, when and where we share context,” said Kate Thomas, Director of Corporate Marketing and Communications. Thomas outlined some methods through which OPPD communicates with customers including OPPDTheWire.com, social media, “Outlets” bill inserts, public board events, customer care interactions, government and community relations channels and more.

OPPD’s outreach and engagement projects have increased more than tenfold since 2018. Some of the major projects on which the utility has been engaging with customers include new generation like Platteview Solar, owned and operated by AES, and Standing Bear and Turtle Creek Stations, the extension of operations at North Omaha Station, transmission infrastructure improvements, corporate operating plans, strategic directive updates and more.

The utility continuously evaluates processes to improve outreach and engagement. For instance, Thomas said, we learned from our response to the historic July 31 storm and are now sharing more frequent, practical content to provide clearer context to our customers. We are also producing more and new content, including on Instagram — a new channel for OPPD — as we expand our outreach.

“We’ve made strides in the breadth of our outreach,” Thomas said. “But we see opportunities to increase our depth of communications – creating deeper, more tailored relationships with our customers.”

At this evening’s meeting, the board accepted the SD-13 monitoring report, finding the utility to be sufficiently in compliance with the directive.

Other action

In other action, directors: 

• Approved the August 2024 financial report, September 2024 meeting minutes and Oct. 17, 2024, agenda.
• Approved establishment of the Risk Committee, a new standing committee providing risk management oversight for the company, incorporating responsibilities previously assigned to the Audit Subcommittee.
• Approved an OPPD President and CEO emergency succession plan, in the event of an unexpected vacancy or absence, to ensure continuity of leadership with minimal organizational disruptions.
• Approved the use of regulatory accounting for storm restoration costs for the 2024 storms that qualify for Federal Emergency Management Assistance reimbursement with recognition as expense in the future to match related grant revenues.
• Approved a request to exceed 2024 Corporate Operating Plan expenditures primarily due to multiple unexpected expenditures including additional energy purchases related to storms, extended generation unit outages and pass-through costs to serve market rate customers. Capital expenditures related to refined estimates and timelines related to near-term generation projects are also factors.
• Received the monthly President’s Report, available to view at OPPD.com/BoardMeeting.

Next board meetings

The next all-committees meeting will be Tuesday, Nov. 19 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, Nov. 21, 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.