The Nebraska Public Power District held its October 9-10, 2008, Board of Directors’ meeting in Columbus, Neb. A special meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on Friday, October 17, 2008, at the Lied Lodge and Conference Center, 2700 Sylvan Road, Nebraska City, Nebraska, beginning at 8:30 a.m. The next regular Board of Directors’ meeting will be held Thursday and Friday, November 13-14, in Columbus.

Guests at the meeting included: Scott Howells with Energy Solutions, Jerry Homolka with Niobrara Valley EMC, Bruce Pontow with the Nebraska G&T; Dave Bell with Loup Public Power District; Ross Knott, Jim Leifeld, Larry Lambert, Monty Reicks, Larry Temme, Allen Thorberg, Tony Theiman; Helen Preusser, John Veik, Doug Koch; Angela Koch, Tom Schuele, Kathy Thorberg, all of Petersburg; Shannon Landauer, Executive Director of the Boone County Economic Agency; and Adrian Sanchez with the Columbus Telegram.

The Board approved a capital project for CNS for the refurbishment of circulating water pump “D” for $165,000.

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

• Contract for emergency preparedness alert and notification system sirens, awarded to Dickinson Company, Inc., for $389,564; and
• An amendment to the contract with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for $166,927 for the relocation of the CNS meteorological tower.

The Board also approved the following items for Energy Supply: 

• Contract with Kissick Construction Company for the Sheldon Station water treatment and discharge project for $12,518,130;
• Contract with FL Smidth Airtech, Inc., for Unit 2 baghouse replacement of 18,533 filter bags at Gerald Gentleman Station (GGS) for $2,552,125;
• Contract with JCI Industries, Inc., for pump impellers and shop repairs at GGS for $426,360;
• Engineer’s Certificate to purchase a used dual supply system for the Hallam Peaker for an amount not to exceed $1,300,000;
• An Agreement with Wayne E. Williams for an estimated amount of $232,000 for construction management services for the water treatment and discharge project at Sheldon Station;
• Agreement with Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc., for $516,950 for engineering services for the water treatment and discharge project at Sheldon Station; and
• And an agreement with Alexander Open Systems in the amount of $130,551 for Cisco router hardware and software maintenance.

The Board also approved an amendment to the Domestic Energy Research and Application Initiative Charter, and approved funding for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Demonstration projects for the Norfolk Operations Center in the amount of $475,000.

The Board accepted the August 2008 financial statements. Traci Bender, vice president and chief financial officer, reported that the District ended operations for the month of August with a deficit of $0.2 million. The year-to-date surplus through the end of August is $1.3 million.

Also approved was the transmission rate template for the NPPD pricing zone within the Southwest Power Pool. Also approved was a public hearing to be held November 13, 2008, at 9:30 a.m. in Columbus, regarding the proposed 2009 General Firm Wholesale Power Service Rate schedule.

Also approved was a capital project that would consolidate four existing NPPD building and office facilities in Norfolk in one location for $18,670,000.

The following customer services and delivery capital projects were approved by the Board: building substation capacity increase at Crawford for $1,577,227; substation feeder conversion at the Aurora South substation for $710,834; 115 kilovolt (kV) transformers at various locations for $7,845,549; 120-foot aerial lift addition at Norfolk for $571,954; 120-foot aerial lift replacement at York for $571,954; all terrain digger/crane replacement at York for $557,500; Stone Ridge 8th addition service extension at Kearney for $103,362; switching station at Harbine for $2,900,000, 115 kV line construction between Harbine and Steele City for $9,090,375; and switching station at Steele City for $2,815,421.

Also approved were the following customer services and delivery items:

• Contract for 115 kV power transformers were awarded in three parts to the following: Siemens PT&D, Inc., Part I for $3,094,600, Part II to Delta Star, Inc., for $1,122,285 and Part III to Siemens PT&D, Inc., for $1,142,000;

The Board recognized the retirements of W. Dale Leistritz, Mechanical Technician at Gerald Gentleman Station, Stanley M. Michels, Engineer at York Operations Center, and Ronald E. Rogers, Engineer at Cooper Nuclear Station.