The Nebraska Public Power District held its March 12-13, 2009, Board of Directors’ meeting in Columbus, Neb. The next Board of Directors’ meeting will be held Wednesday and Thursday, April 8-9, 2009, in Columbus.

Guests at the meeting included Edward Boltz, James Hirschman, DeWayne Barleen, and Brian Lukasiewicz with Howard Greeley Rural Public Power District; Mardell Johnson, Vernon Kuhnel, and Bob Lindburg with Polk County Rural Public Power District; Dale Barth, Bruce Hoehne, and Bill Johnson representing Stanton County Public Power District; Brent Ballou and Jim Dietz with Twin Valleys Public Power District; Bruce Pontow of the Nebraska Electric G&T; Adrian Sanchez with the Columbus Telegram; Steve Eveans with Windrow Energy; David Langenberg and Dave Seda with Hawkins Construction; and Bill Leslie, NPPD retiree.

Officer and Board staff compensation was approved by the Board of Directors. Also approved was the revised 2009 Revenue and Expense and Capital Projects budget.

The following contracts and engineer’s certificates were acted on for Cooper Nuclear Station:

• Rejected all bids and authorized management to negotiate a contract for reactor recirculation pump motor B replacement;
• Authorized a contract for a multi-purpose facility HV/AC system upgrade with Ray Martin Company at a cost of $185,000;
• Approved a contract for maintenance for outage instrument and control personnel support for the fall 2009 refueling outage with Ames, Inc., in the amount of $1,434,433;
• Rejected all bids for welding and rigging services for feedwater heaters and authorized management to negotiate and execute a contract not to exceed $5,000,000;
• Authorized a contract for chrom-moly pipe and fittings with Mid-States Supply Company, Inc., dba Midco Supply Company, in the amount of $250,528.
• Approved a contract for spare reactor recirculating motor generator set drive refurbishment/rewind with Monarch Electric Service Co., in the amount of $198,225
• Rejected all bids for 11 local power range monitors and authorized management to negotiate and execute a contract not-to-exceed $1,073,920
• Approved an amendment to a contract with Transnuclear, Inc. for an estimated amount of $535,480 plus shipping costs to provide for additional equipment, material and labor necessary for the first used nuclear fuel transfer for the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation Project in 2009;
• Authorized an engineer’s certificate for service water pump repair by Sulzer Pumps, Inc., at a price not to exceed $225,000.
• Accepted an engineer’s certificate with Transnuclear, Inc., for the procurement of dry fuel storage system material to support the second transfer of used nuclear fuel in 2012 at an estimated cost of $13,184,505;
• Approved an engineer’s certificate for a contract with Exelon Generation Co., LLC, for the procurement of up to eight dry shielded canisters for the second transfer of used nuclear fuel scheduled for Cooper Nuclear Station in 2012 at a cost of $3,600,000;
• Postponed a request for funding to conduct additional extended power uprate analysis; and
• Authorized management to execute documents for the renewal of Nuclear Electrical Insurance Limited (NEIL) Property & Accidental Outage Insurance.

The Board approved the following items for Energy Supply:

• A contract amendment for the refurbishment of Unit 1 fan rotor assembly at Gerald Gentleman Station (GGS) with TLT-Babcock, Inc. at a price of $115,001;
• A laser wind sensor demonstration project at the Ainsworth Wind Energy Facility for $93,000 to be funded through the District’s Domestic Research and Energy Application Initiative.

The Board accepted NPPD’s January financial statements. Traci Bender, vice president and chief financial officer, reported that the District ended January with a surplus of $3.9 million. The Board also approved NPPD’s ancillary service rates for new transmission requests taken after April 1, 2009 under the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) tariff. 

The Board approved the following capital project additions for Customer Services and Delivery: June 2008 spring storm damage at various locations for a total of $691,321; and the replacement of a five-pole structure on the Neligh-Petersburg, 115-kV line for $127,301.

The Board also:

• Awarded a contract for construction of the Norfolk Operations Center to J.E. Dunn Construction Company for $14,438,139;
• Rejected bids for seven 115-kV power circuit breakers and authorized management to rebid the contract;
• Authorized a contract with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., for a 230/115-kV power transformer at Canaday Power Station at a cost of $3,378,878;
• Approved a contract for control panels at the Harbine and Lowell substations and awarded it to Keystone Electrical Manufacturing Co., Inc., for $243,497;
• Awarded a contract to Titan Machinery, Inc. for a pole and large material handler at a cost of $387,142;
• A task authorization was authorized with HDR Engineering, Inc., to provide construction coordination services for the Norfolk Operations Center in the amount of $245,254;
• Amended a contract with HDR Engineering, Inc., for additional architectural and engineering design for the Norfolk Operations Center for $191,554.

The Board approved NPPD’s Identity Theft Prevention Program, as required by federal law, and the 2008 Annual Hospital/Medical Plan Report.

The Board recognized the retirements of John C. Meister, Warehouse Attendant at the York Operations Center; William D. Leslie, Technical Operations center Analyst at the York Operations Center; and Fred D. Humm, Security Officer at Cooper Nuclear Station.