The Nebraska Public Power District held its July 10-11, 2008, Board of Directors’ meeting in Columbus, Neb. The next Board of Directors’ meeting will be held Thursday and Friday, August 14-15, 2008, in Columbus.

Guests at the meeting included: Wayne Licking, Margaret Bradley, and Lloyd Ramsey with Custer Public Power District; Chet Mizner and Rich Walters with KBR Rural Public Power District; Bruce Pontow with the Nebraska G&T; and Adrian Sanchez of the Columbus Telegram.

The Board approved a supplement to a previously approved capital project for permanent drywell shielding at Cooper Nuclear Station (CNS) at a cost of $255,000, in support of the recently completed refueling outage.

The following contracts and engineer’s certificates related to CNS were also approved:

• Rejected bids for eight feedwater heater level control valves and authorized management to negotiate with vendors who can supply the control valves;
• Engineer’s Certificate for two main steam isolation valve disc and piston assemblies;
• Heywood Hills Photography, for the purchase of poster framing and matting at an amount not to exceed $40,000.
• Task Authorization with Proto-Power Corporation for $273,000 for high pressure coolant injection valve modification engineering services;
• Amendment for main condenser inspection and Eddy Current Testing with Conco Systems, Inc., for $143,771; and 
• Agreement with the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency to maintain a radiological emergency response plan for an estimated amount of $143,093.

The Board approved the following capital projects for Energy Supply: the replacement of a radio tower at Chadron for $152,000; well field, Phase II at Gerald Gentleman Station (GGS) for $1,943,723; and E-mail archiving at the Columbus General Office for $292,000. 

Other Energy Supply items approved included: 

• Contract awarded to Charles Sargent Irrigation, Inc., in the amount of $487,596 for the procurement and installation of well field pumps at GGS;
• Contract awarded to Midlands Contracting, Inc., in the amount of $658,480 for the procurement and installation of well field pipe at GGS;
• A contract for the GGS Unit 2 steam coil air heaters, awarded to Aerofin Corporation for $156,580;
• Task Authorization with Siemens Power Generation, Inc., for an estimated amount of $300,000 for field engineering services at Sheldon Station;
• Agreement with Poole Fire Protection, Inc., for $245,783 for the fire protection and coal handling system at GGS; and
• Agreement with Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) for $200,000 for a compressed air energy storage demonstration project.

The Board also approved a “Customer Refrigerator Recycling Program” through the District’s Domestic Energy Research and Application Initiative Project.

The Board accepted the May 2008 financial statements. Traci Bender, vice president and chief financial officer, reported that the District ended May with a deficit of $1.1 million. The year-to-date deficit through the end of May is $1.4 million.

The Board approved resolutions for three Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) Standards. The Board approved a modified standard for Fuel Sources; rejected the standard for Fossil Fuel Generation Efficiency; and approved a modified standard for Net Metering.

Approval was made on proceeding with the 2008 B Bond Issue. Goldman, Sachs & Co., was selected to serve as the Senior Manager.

Approval was made to renew the JPMorgan Chase Bank Credit Agreement for a $15 million Line of Credit to meet the requirements of the Federal Price-Anderson Act to provide nuclear liability insurance.

The Board approved the following capital projects for Customer Services and Delivery: second transformer bay addition in Pine Ridge for $126,413; installation of a 115 kV capacitor bank at Genoa for $644,383; purchase of and for the Hilltop substation in Kearney for $141,600; industrial park voltage conversion in McCook for $311,980; facility improvement in Sutherland for $102,876; and the Menard’s line extension in Scottsbluff for $243,376.

Also approved were the following customer services and delivery items: 

• Contract with TESSCO Utility Services, Inc., for $1,467,158 for 115 kilovolt (kV) transmission line rebuild, Aurora-Grand Island);
• Contract with Brink Constructors, Inc., for $1,739,363 for the Columbus East and Pawnee Lake substation construction;
• Contract with L.E. Myers Co., for $34,997,373 for 50 miles of single circuit 345 kV transmission line construction and 30 miles of double-circuit transmission line (345 kV/115 kV) construction  for the East-Central Nebraska Electric Transmission Reliability Project;
• Contract for the Kearney Office renovation, awarded to Sorensen Group, Inc., for $193,741;
• Contract for control panels for the Grand Island 230 kV substation, awarded to Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories for $167,576;
• Amendment with Doble Engineering Company for an estimated amount of $506,871 to extend a lease of test equipment for non-destructive testing of breakers, generators, and transformers;
• Agreement with Eakes Office Plus for $147,000 for office furniture at the Kearney office; and
• An agreement with JACO Environmental for $1,111,250 for a three-year residential refrigerator and freezer recycling program.

A contract was also awarded to Mechanical Sales, Inc., for the Columbus General Office heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) chiller. This contract was awarded in two parts, Part I for $249,345 and Part II for $213,980.

The Board recognized the retirements of Charles A. Behr, Instrument and Control Technician at Cooper Nuclear Station, and James K. Salisbury, Senior Project Manager at Cooper Nuclear Station.