Powering Ag in central Nebraska
CUSTER COUNTY - Of the 10,757 accounts at Custer Public Power District, 4,954 are irrigation and stock well accounts. That’s 46 percent.
Add in a good part of the 4,649 rural accounts for farm houses, ranch houses and Ag workers who live in towns and villages. Then toss in some of the 1,154 small commercial accounts for packing plants, hog barns and other Ag-businesses and it’s easy to see that most of accounts CPPD powers are agricultural.
“Ag is what is in our service territory,” Rick Nelson CPPD General Manager, said. “Ag drives a lot of electricity.”
In turn, those nearly 5,000 irrigation and stock well accounts generate about 40 to 45 percent of CPPD’s revenue. Small commercial businesses generate about 20 percent revenue. Add in a good part of the residential and village accounts and it can easily be said that Ag powers CPPD right back.
The average home, Nelson said, uses about 1,000 kilowatts (KW) per month for an average of 12,000 KW per year. The average irrigation account uses about 42,000 KW per year, or about 3.5 times that of the house, for considerably less time, about 3 to 6 months de
pending upon the weather.
As we head into planting season, there may be concerns that the lack of available energy we saw in February of this year may come back when irrigation is in full swing. Should farmers and ranchers be concerned that the rolling blackout may return this summer?
“No,” Nelson said. “NPPD (Nebraska Public Power District) has plenty of generation for the summer.” He added that many of the factors that contributed to February will not be in play. “There will be no generators shut down because they were frozen. More wind will be available, too,” he said.
Understanding the complex relationships between power districts and companies can be confusing. Custer Public Power District supplies electricity for a large territory both rural and municipal including the towns and villages of Oconto, Mason City, Litchfield, Dunning, Thedford, Anselmo, Merna, Seneca, Mullen, Tryon, Stapleton, Ringhold, Taylor, Sargent and Hazard. Of those, Mullen and Sargent are wholesale customers who purchase electricity from
CPPD and sell it to their own customers; the remaining areas are retail customers of CPPD.
Municipalities not served by CPPD are Ansley, Arnold, Broken Bow and Callaway. Broken Bow, for example, purchases power from MEAN (Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska). Custer Public Power District serves more than 8,000 square miles with more than 4,600 miles of Distribution lines (CPPD’s facebook page).
CPPD purchases electricity from Nebraska Electric Generation & Transmission Coop., Inc., what Nelson refers to in conversation as G&T. NPPD both generates, buys and sells electricity, and G&T may buy some of that for CPPD.
During February, many customers heard about the Southwest Power Pool, or SPP, for perhaps the first time. SPP is an organization that serves both wholesale and retail electric customers from North Dakota all the way south to northern Texas. Nelson explained that NPPD is a member of SPP, however CPPD is not. “We (CPPD) are a part of NPPD’s load.”
This is all part of the three grids that serve the lower 48 states - the Eastern Interconnection (most of the country east of the Rocky Mountains), the Western Interconnection (west of the Rocky Mountains) and Texas, or ERCOT (Energy Reliability Council of Texas). These three grids are designed so that the entire country cannot lose power at the same time. In addition, areas within the grids can adjust and help other areas. When generation in Nebraska doesn’t meet Nebraska’s need, SPP can get power from the east. When parts of the eastern U.S. needs power, they can get it from the central area.
ERCOT has been in the news a lot recently for the extended loss of power in Texas during the extreme cold in February as well as the bills ERCOT customers are now receiving. Some customers have said they have unexpectedly received bills in the thousands of dollars. It’s a result of rates being changed during the emergency. “That’s what happens in an unregulated market,” Nelson explained.
What are CPPD customers seeing as a result of February?
“Bills will be bigger because customers used more electricity,” Nelson said. “Our rates didn’t change.”
ERCOT is a market based entity, he further explained. When demand goes up, and it went up dramatically in February, rates can be increased. In comparison, CPPD’s rates are based on actual cost. Nelson added, “We are a regulated entity. NPPD is a regulated entity. If you use more kilowatts, your bill will be higher because of use, not because of a rate increase.”
In fact, there hasn’t been a rate increase for two years at CPPD. And another thing has been happening. CPPD is passing along credit received from NPPD in the form of Cost Production Adjustment (CPA).
“NPPD for the past four or five years has done a great job of generating, buying and selling,” Nelson said. “They did such a good job that they pass on credit
to Custer and we are passing it back to all accounts.” He encourages customers to take a closer look at their statement. “Every account will see credits. Irrigation accounts will see it, every account will see it.”
According to custerpower.com, CPPD’s website, the Custer Public Power District is geographically the largest rural public power district in Nebraska. Nelson also calls CPPD “a unique animal” in its power usage. For example, the eastern part of Nebraska has a higher winter time use than summer.
“For Custer, our winter time load is about one fifth (20 percent) of summer time,” Nelson said. Air-conditioning for about 5,000 accounts along with irrigation in full swing accounts for summer use being five times that of winter.
Nelson also pointed out differences with Dawson Public Power, saying, “They have the I-80 corridor, ethanol plants and big commercial accounts.” In contrast, the commercial accounts CPPD serves are classified as small.
Peak usage time during summer is usually at night, though Nelson notes that it can change. “It can get to be 24/7 by the 20th of July,” he said. He is adamant that CPPD will not tell Ag producers when they can irrigate crops or water their animals. “We’re not going to tell them when they have to operate,” he said.
For residential accounts, there are things that can be done to help mitigate the load. The list includes things like put off running the dishwasher and when running it, run it in energy mode; don’t turn on the oven and use the microwave instead, or grill outside; set the water heater to 120 degrees; hang blinds or curtains on south windows; unplug chargers when not in use; and plant trees for shade. “It’s a lot of the same things people already do to reduce their bill,” Nelson said.
For those interested in renewable energy, wind contributed 9 percent of SPP’s energy at one point of the day Feb. 15 and 15 percent at one point of the day on Feb. 16. Solar on those same days at the same times was 0.428 percent and 0.3525 percent respectively. Less than 3,000 KWs were generated by wind turbines due to freezing and lack of wind. Summer is a completely different story. “In certain days of the year, up to 60 percent of the grid is generated by wind,” Nelson said.
Per their wholesale contract, Nelson said CPPD can purchase up to 10 percent of their peak directly from renewables. “That’s more than all of the other districts in the U.S.,” he noted. For now, CPPD has reached that limit, be it solar or wind. Anything beyond that generated by wind turbines or solar arrays goes to NPPD.
Another aspect of green energy is electric vehicles. To Nelson’s knowledge, there aren’t any electric powered tractors or combines in the area. At least, no one has seen any pull up to the recharging station at CPPD in east Broken Bow! The charger was installed in 2012 and has been upgraded over the years. “We needed some charges on Highway 2 west of Grand Island,” Nelson said. “Recently, we’ve seen more and more hook-ups.”
A ChargePoint card is required to unlock the charger and charge a vehicle. Currently, the electricity is free. The amount used is negligible to the overall electricity supplied by CPPD.
“It’s our incentive for people to use it,” Nelsons said. “The usage doesn’t affect the rates of customers with accounts.”
There’s talk that 2021 will be a year of a drought, much like 2012. That means there may be high usage for irrigation accounts, stock tanks and other agricultural use. Custer Public Power District will be ready to keep powering Ag and ag will be powering CPPD in turn. Nelson said he thinks it will be a good year. “We’re excited,” he said. “I like where we’re at and where we are in history.”