Many factors drive OPPD rate hike
Residential Omaha Public Power District customers will pay, on average, $5.30 more each month in 2012 than they did this year.
The eight-member OPPD board voted unanimously Thursday to increase rates in 2012 by 5.9 percent, one of the largest jumps in nine successive years of increases.
This latest increase results from a federal requirement that OPPD reduce air pollution from its older coal plants; unprecedented flooding along the Missouri River; rising health insurance and pension costs; and expanded use of wind power, OPPD vice president and chief financial officer Edward Easterlin has said.
The increase is expected to generate about $47.5 million toward a more than $1 billion budget.
About 50 people offered comments about the increase in writing or by phone before the vote. Each author expressed opposition to the increase, though OPPD would not release the names of those who wrote.
Board Chairman John Green said at the meeting that he was struck by the stress that ratepayers expressed.
"Thanks for the increase — my raise last year was 1 percent," wrote one ratepayer. "How do you expect us to pay for all this? You all are out of touch with what the average person is going thru."
OPPD spokesman Mike Jones said no callers supported the increase, but some said they understood why it needed to happen.
The board also said at Thursday's meeting that uncertainty about both the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station and regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency could require revisiting the 2012 budget.
"We really don't know what the cost is," Easterlin said.
Fort Calhoun has been closed since April, when the Missouri River flooded, and OPPD officials are unsure when it will open again. Jones said the closure has cost the district $32 million so far, mainly in the costs of having to buy additional electricity and being unable to sell OPPD's excess power to other utilities.
President and CEO Gary Gates said OPPD will look for internal cuts before seeking additional rate increases. He also said the budget, as approved, can absorb extra costs from Fort Calhoun for the next several months.
Omaha resident Patrick Rinn told the board he's concerned about Fort Calhoun's costs.
"This is not going to go away," he said.
Since 2003, OPPD rates typically have gone up between 2 percent and 5 percent a year, although a jump in coal and other fuel costs caused a double-digit increase in 2009.
Prior to that, OPPD had gone a dozen years without an increase.
The average customer's bill will increase to $94.85 in 2012. That's a 52 percent increase from the average $62.20 paid before the increases began, though Jones said some of the change are the result of customers using more electricity.
Source: Omaha World Herald
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