Nebraska public power utility Omaha Public Power District’s electricity rates are among the lowest in the region and in the nation, as detailed in an OPPD annual monitoring report that the OPPD Board of Directors accepted at this month’s meeting.
The directive sets a directional goal for OPPD’s rates to be 10% below the average rates of the North Central Region, comprised of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The June 2024 report, based on 2022 data from the Energy Information Administration, shows that OPPD rates averaged across all classes were 16.2% below the regional average and 25.5% below the national average.
“OPPD has gained a considerable amount of competitiveness in recent years,” said Beth Hoyle, OPPD’s director of Financial Planning and Analysis.
Here’s the breakdown among specific rate classes:
- Residential rates were 14.9% below the regional average and 22.3% below the national average.
- Commercial rates were 18.4% below the regional average and 28% below the national average.
- Industrial rates were 18.8% below the regional average and 20.9% below the national average.
“Like many sectors, the utility industry and region have experienced pressure from inflationary costs, increased wholesale power supply costs, supply constraints and rising load growth. Despite these challenges, OPPD’s rates in 2022 were significantly lower when compared to both regional and national rates,” OPPD said.
“Some reasons for increased rates in other states include capacity retirements, grid modernization, increasing costs and capacity restraints,” Hoyle said. “Other utilities are doing similar work as we are and facing similar challenges, but we feel that OPPD is doing it with less of an impact to our customers.”
