Omaha Public Power District leaders shared updates with the utility’s board of directors this week on the progress with both generation and transmission projects as well as the utility’s new advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The current meters are at the end of their useful life and new meters must be installed to ensure continued metering accuracy and reliability. The new meters will provide customers more insight into their energy usage.
On the generation front, Turtle Creek Station is online and has been operating commercially since June. Standing Bear Lake Station is expected to reach substantial completion near the end of summer.
Meanwhile, construction activities including excavation, grading and well drilling are underway as part of the expansions of Cass County Station and Turtle Creek Station, which will take place over the next several years. The utility is working with Kiewit to add three natural gas combustion engines at Cass County Station and one additional unit at Turtle Creek Station. Each unit can generate up to 225 megawatts (MW) of electricity and can start up quickly to help respond to grid and load demands as needed. A summary of progress on the North Omaha Station fuel conversion project was also provided.
Northwest of Norfolk, OPPD reached a key milestone in the Pierce County Energy Center project last month.
“I’m thrilled to announce that the generation interconnection agreement was executed last month,” said Joe Lang, director of Generation Strategy and Origination.
That project, a new 420 megawatt solar/170 MW battery facility, is an OPPD collaboration with Google and NextEra Energy Resources.
Great strides are being made on the transmission front, as well. Construction of the Cass to Sarpy Transmission project is expected to begin in October. The 23-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line will run between Cass County Station and Turtle Creek Station, which is in Sarpy County.
“We have 184 miles of transmission in the design phase, and we expect another roughly 200 miles of additional transmission expansion over the next decade,” said Dannie Buelt, senior director of the Major Projects team. “This work will move power more reliably and efficiently, allowing more customers to receive electricity in our growing service territory. It represents the large investments needed to support our long-term goals for reliability and growth.
Technology upgrades
Work continues on OPPD’s advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Next month OPPD will introduce a new customer platform, MyOPPD, that features tools to help customers track their electricity usage, pay their bill, and manage multiple accounts associated with their homes and businesses. Customers can pay bills manually or choose to sign up for auto pay with a credit card or bank account.
Also coming is a new, interactive outage map, which will provide customers and the public with detailed, real-time information about outages throughout OPPD’s service area. Customers will be able to report outages on the site, and during outages, the map will display the total number of current outages (clusters of customers without power) as well as the total number of customers without power and the total number of customers that OPPD serves.
When fully implemented over the next few years, AMI and its surrounding ecosystem will replace meters at the end of their service life and help OPPD identify and pinpoint outages faster and with greater precision. New customer meters will send outage information to OPPD automatically.
Other actions
In other action, directors:
- Approved the June 2025 financial report, the June 2025 meeting minutes and the August 21, 2025, board meeting agenda.
- Conducted and discussed annual CEO and corporate officer performance reviews. Directors also approved annual compensation adjustments.
- Approved the use of regulatory accounting for the March 2025 blizzard restoration costs and any additional 2025 storm events that qualify for FEMA/NEMA reimbursement.
- Approved the use of regulatory accounting to reestablish the Debt Retirement Reserve Account. This action will give OPPD management more ability to stabilize rates during a period of increasing debt load associated with expansive electric system growth.
- Approved an amendment to Resolution 1788, to allow the district to invest in the same U.S. government agency obligations that were allowable prior to the Moody’s recent downgrade of the U.S. Government.
- Approved a policy revision in Strategic Directive-6: Safety to establish a long-term goal that OPPD shall strive to achieve 80% or above on the OPPD Safety Index*.
- Approved the Engineer’s Certification and authorized management to negotiate and enter into contract(s) with General Electric Vernova International LLC for materials and services to refurbish Sarpy County Station units 1 and 2 and Jones Street Station units 1 and 2 generators.
- Awarded a contract to Brink Constructors Inc. in the amount of $26,690,523 to construct a 23-mile 345kV transmission line from Cass County Station to Turtle Creek Station and rebuild roughly 10 miles of aging 69kV infrastructure along the route with the new 345kV line.
- Received the monthly President’s Report, available to view at oppd.com/BoardMeeting.
Next board meetings
The next all-committees meeting will be held in person Tuesday, September 16, 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, September 18, 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.