Omaha Public Power District is still working through the aftermath of our service territory’s fifth-largest storm to date in terms of power outages. Wednesday’s blizzard knocked out power to 106,000 customers at its peak and impacted more than 132,000 customers in total throughout its nearly 18-hour duration.
The storm has presented incredible challenges to frontline employees, from high wind dangers with electrical work to whiteout conditions on roadways just trying to access outage areas. Among some of the damaged equipment in need of replacement are around 600 or more distribution poles so far, though that number could grow as we assess more rural spaces, and 150 transmission poles in need of replacement or repair. That's not to mention the work involved with restringing lines and making other repairs. Weather conditions meant pauses in work and slow-going travel for heavy bucket trucks, among other equipment. In addition, neighboring utilities that would normally provide mutual aid support had thousands of their own outages to contend with due to the storm.
OPPD crews have made good progress and were joined by mutual aid teams today from as far away as Kentucky for combined manpower of around 600 workers on the front line. Utilities and contractors providing mutual aid include LG&E & KU Energy - 5 Star Electric, Evergy’s PAR Electric, Evergy’s Capital Electric, Alliant Energy/WPL - Michels, Victory Power Services, MidCon Energy, LE Myers, Watts, and High Voltage.
They continue to work around the clock to restore power to 27,405 customers, who remained in the dark as of 5:30 p.m. This afternoon, the utility sent phone messages to those customers with more specific restoration times. We will continue to provide updates as work progresses.
Experienced VP promoted to CFO
During board committee meetings this week, OPPD President & CEO Javier Fernandez announced his selection of Brad Underwood, the utility’s current vice president of Systems Transformation, to assume duties of vice president of Finance and chief financial officer. He will now lead both business units as one newly integrated team.
Underwood replaces Jeff Bishop, who recently accepted another public utility job in his home state of Washington, where he still has family.
“Jeff’s departure gave us an opportunity to be intentional about our next steps,” said President and CEO Javier Fernandez. “It quickly became apparent that we already had the best solution for the CFO position, within our organization. Brad is a proven leader and has done a fantastic job delivering results for OPPD.”
Fernandez said bringing Systems Transformation together with Financial Services under one business unit strengthens OPPD’s ability to drive sustainable growth and operational excellence.
“This integration helps ensure our decision-making is aligned and that transformation efforts are not only innovative but also financially sound. It helps us to maximize our resources and deliver greater value to our customers.”
Underwood started at OPPD in 2013 as manager of Nuclear Business Operations. Since then, he served as treasury manager, director of Corporate Planning and director of Financial Planning. He was promoted to vice president of Systems Transformation in May 2022. Prior to OPPD, he served in various roles providing commercial and financial oversight for teams constructing large energy infrastructure projects. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master’s degree from Creighton University.
“Brad’s experience will allow for a smooth leadership transition and will enable us to continue moving forward on the important initiatives taking place in both these areas,” Fernandez said.
Other action
In other action, directors:
- Approved the March 20, 2025 board meeting agenda.
- Received, discussed and accepted the Strategic Directive 1: Strategic Foundation monitoring report. Acceptance means the board finds OPPD sufficiently in compliance with the directive.
- Approved a revision to Strategic Directive 8: Employee Relations.
- Approved the selection of Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management and Acadian Asset Management as new retirement fund investment managers for OPPD.
- Authorized OPPD management to negotiate and enter a contract with Mitsubishi Power Aero, for the design, material, fabrication and site delivery requirements of upgraded fuel and water control valve assemblies for Sarpy County Station Units 4 and 5. Mitsubishi Power Aero is the original manufacturer of the equipment. Negotiating an upgrade package enables OPPD to replace obsolete equipment ensuring reliable operation of these critical generation assets.
- Considered FERC orders 719 and 719-A, which require regional transmission organizations to accept bids from demand response resources and decided to opt out of the provision allowing third-party aggregators and aggregators of retail customers to bid their demand response resources into the wholesale market. OPPD management is authorized to take actions to implement this opt-out.
- Approved an increase from $1.4 billion to $2 billion for the Electric System Revenue Bonds debt authorization through 2025 to refund debt and finance capital projects.
The next all-committees meeting will be held in-person Tuesday, April 15, at 10 a.m. at Blue Cross Blue Shield, 1919 Aksarben Dr., as well as virtually, via Webex. The meeting link and instructions will be available at OPPD.com/CommitteeAgenda, beginning about 9:45 a.m., depending on the duration of a preceding closed-session meeting, if needed.
The next monthly board meeting is Thursday, April 17, at 5 p.m., both in-person at the Legislative Chamber of the Omaha Civic Center, 1819 Farnam St., as well as virtually via Webex. The public can attend virtually by accessing the meeting link and instructions at OPPD.com/BoardAgenda, beginning at 4:45 p.m.