Nebraska Public Power District to accrue one-year bill credit, no base electric rate increases for 2020

Both retail and wholesale customers of Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) will not be given base electric rate increases, according to an announcement from the NPPD Board of Directors.

For the retail end, this marks seven straight years without an increase, and three years running for wholesale customers, such as public power districts and municipalities. In addition, the NPPD Board of Directors has pledged a one-year bill credit for 2020, meaning that $46.1 million in rate stabilization funds will be given back to wholesale customers. It comes in the form of a credit averaging 6.2 percent on monthly bills.

“No increase in our electric rates is good for the economy of Nebraska and the people who live and work here. It’s especially good for the agriculture economy of the state which has had some tough times recently,” NPPD President and CEO Pat Pope said. “Cost control has been important to NPPD, and we have seen increased efficiencies and are operating very well. But at no time have we impacted service, reliability, or jeopardized the safety of our employees and customers.”

The NPPD’s wholesale rate is benchmarked with the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation’s wholesale power cost. The utility intends to get within the CFC’s 25 percentile mark, and as of the last benchmarking in 2018, sat at the 26.9 percentile mark.

NPPD retail customers who receive bills from NPPD itself should see the credits on their bills beginning February 2020. Those credits will run through January 2021 and range from 2 to 4 percent, depending on the customer class and their electrical usage.