 |
Electric lights get special attention during the month of October. We turn on living room lights earlier than we did the week before with each sunset bringing us closer to the end of Daylight Savings Time. Stadium lights illuminate hometown football games; orange lights decorate doorways for the fall; porch lights welcome trick-or-treaters, and streetlights reveal bicyclists and walkers enjoying some of the last temperate evenings of the year.
October’s lights also represent the value of public power. October is Public Power Month, and with this note, I would like to point out that Nebraskans pay electric rates among the lowest in the nation - fifth lowest, in fact. Nebraska’s electric rates are economical because of its public power structure and the utilities’ shared goal to keep costs as low as reasonably possible.
This isn’t always easy to do. Power plants, fuel, transmission lines, electrical equipment, and the computerized systems that operate them are more expensive than most people realize. For instance, the cost to construct the 80-mile, 345,000 high-voltage power line from Columbus to Lincoln (along with some substation additions and upgrades) is $152 million. It cost nearly $32 million to refurbish the main generator at the Nebraska Public Power District’s nuclear plant near Brownville, Neb. Replacement of one bucket truck or digger-derrick used by our line technicians costs between $150,000-$400,000, and dozens of these trucks are located throughout the state to serve customers.
NPPD operates and maintains nine major power plants, more than 4,300 miles of high-voltage power lines, approximately 260 substations, and thousands more miles of distribution lines in 80 Nebraska communities. Costs add up.
Factor in a tough economy and budgets become more than tight. NPPD experienced one of its most challenging summers this year. Mild and wet weather lessened the need for electricity used by NPPD’s customers. In addition, the prices for energy NPPD sells in the wholesale energy markets fell due to the national recession. Typically, revenue from those market sales is used to offset NPPD’s operational costs; but this year, NPPD experienced a revenue shortfall.
NPPD cut $20 million from its 2009 budget and $32 million from its 2010 budget to help offset these revenue shortfalls, and continues to look at each expense, asking if it can be deferred or cut.
Although major budget reductions were made, rate increases are needed to cover the cost of the additional power plant and transmission line additions and improvements being made. Thousands of Nebraska’s farms and businesses and hundreds of thousands of residents expect electricity to be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, so investments in the system that serves Nebraskans must continue.
Meanwhile, NPPD pledges to be good stewards of our customers’ dollars. Together, we will get through this economic pinch; and along the way, NPPD pledges to control costs, make wise decisions, and reliably generate the power that keeps the lights on – this month and every month.
For more information, visit itsyourpower.org.
Ron Asche
President and CEO
Nebraska Public Power District
