Senators criticize NPPD wind energy process

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By The Associated Press

COLUMBUS — The Nebraska Public Power District is not doing enough to encourage locally developed projects to reap energy from the wind, eight state senators say.

The senators wrote to NPPD, urging it to rework its plan for soliciting project proposals.

“Your protocol appears to ignore the actions of all branches of government who are seeking to protect Nebraska’s economy and our system of public power,” the senators said.

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Cap Dierks

Cap Dierks

“Instead, the protocol rewards out-of-state private developers who will take their profits out of state and pose a threat to the integrity of the public power system itself.”

The letter, dated May 31, was signed by Sens. Cap Dierks of Ewing, Steve Lathrop of Omaha, Amanda McGill of Lincoln, Russ Karpisek of Wilber, Don Preister of Omaha, Vickie McDonald of St. Paul, Tom White of Omaha and Norm Wallman of Cortland.

NPPD’s board intends to follow the law, a spokeswoman said.

“The board will be respectful of the senators’ concerns,” said spokeswoman Beth Boesch.

NPPD President Ron Asche said the utility welcomes local proposals, but it must also pick the best projects for its customers.

“We are interested in seeing all of these proposals,” Asche said. “We don’t want to exclude anybody.”

The state’s new wind power law encourages local wind projects.

The state’s electrical utilities — all publicly owned — must take “reasonable steps” to see whether such projects are feasible but they are not obligated to buy power from them.

Central to the criticism of NPPD is whether it should give favor Nebraskans’ projects when it issues a request in July for proposals. NPPD has said all proposals will be considered equally.

Boesch said NPPD doesn’t know yet whether it can fashion the request in favor of Nebraskans.

The senators said such was the intent of the Legislature.

NPPD provides power to about 1 million Nebraskans through retail service and wholesale service to other power companies.

The power district gets about 1 percent of its power from renewable energy. David Rich, NPPD’s renewable energy manager, said recently that NPPD’s goal is to generate about 5 percent of its power from renewable energy.

Nebraska ranks sixth in the nation in terms of the potential for wind energy, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

But there aren’t nearly as many wind turbines in Nebraska, which is the nation’s only all public-power state, as in neighboring states. Nearby states, including Iowa and Minnesota, are both among the top five wind energy-producing states, with California producing the most.