NPPD low rates to remain steady

Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) customers will see steady rates in 2023, in addition to receiving a production cost adjustment credit, following a vote by the board of directors Thursday.

NPPD retail customers will experience 10 consecutive years of stable rates, while wholesale customers who purchase electricity from NPPD will also see no overall rate increase for the sixth straight year. In addition to maintaining stable rates, the NPPD Board of Directors has voted to share approximately $34 million with wholesale customers in the form of a Production Cost Adjustment (PCA) credit. This is the fifth consecutive year that NPPD’s wholesale customers will receive a PCA credit on their bill.

“In a time where inflation has impacted a lot of areas in our day-to-day lives, NPPD’s rates are one expense our customers have seen remain steady,” notes Tom Kent, NPPD president and CEO. “Thanks to the diversity of our generation mix and the great performance of our people and plants, we’ve been able to perform well in the market and return a surplus back to our customers through a PCA credit, for several consecutive years. NPPD’s success in the market results in direct benefits to our wholesale and retail customers, through continued low rates, PCA credits and reinvestments in our infrastructure and equipment. It’s the true value of the public power model.”

NPPD benchmarks its wholesale rate with roughly 800 members of the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) on a yearly basis. Several years ago, NPPD established a goal of having its rates in the CFC’s lowest cost quartile (below the 25-percentile mark) and achieved that goal in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, NPPD finished at the 23.2-percentile mark and most recently in 2021 improved to the 12.4-percentile, ranking it amongst the lowest-cost utilities in the benchmark. NPPD serves 23 rural public power districts and 38 municipalities through wholesale contracts.

NPPD also serves 79 communities at the retail level, which includes residential, commercial, and industrial customers in communities such as Kearney, Norfolk, Plattsmouth, Scottsbluff and York. Those NPPD retail customers who receive a bill directly from NPPD will continue to see a PCA credit on their monthly bill in 2023.

NPPD also offers a separate RateWise Time-of-Use rate to retail residential customers, which allows them to realize potential savings if they can shift a portion of their energy usage to certain times of the day where demand for energy is lower and market prices are more favorable.