Rapid growth in eastern Nebraska has created record demand for electricity. Omaha Public Power District, a publicly owned electricity provider that serves nearly half of Nebraska’s population, reported its highest demand for electricity ever this summer.
On July 27, when the temperature reached 97 degrees and the heat index climbed to 120, OPPD customers used 3,285 megawatts of electricity. For context, if a typical American home were using multiple large appliances at once, 3,285 megawatts could power that household over 160,000 times. The previous record was a daily load demand of 2,980 megawatts.
Electricity demand has reached a new peak every summer since 2021, said OPPD spokesperson Grant Schulte. In addition, since 2019, the amount of energy used during the summer by OPPD customers has increased by an amount large enough to power the entire city of Lincoln.
Speaking of Lincoln, it also reached a record daily peak demand this summer of 917 megawatts on July 20. The temperature reached 101 degrees in the Capital City that day.
Energy usage increases every winter as well, but heating requires less power than cooling, so winter levels don’t reach the extremes of summer. The increase in load demands has occurred due to a combination of growth in the state, and rising temperatures.
“One of the single biggest drivers of consumer electrical use is air conditioning,” Schulte said.
Schulte said that electricity use continues to increase across all customer classes: residential, commercial and industrial.
OPDD used historic data to predict that industrial demand for energy would grow by 19% between 2025 and 2035. That’s not including demand for energy from data centers, which is predicted to grow by 114% in the same time frame.
To address evolving electricity needs, OPPD is expanding into renewable energy and natural gas.
“The key is having a portfolio that has a little bit of everything so that we can adjust. for instance, if the wind isn’t blowing or if the sun isn’t shining, we have other forms,” Schulte said.
Attorney General Mike Hilgers, backed by Gov. Jim Pillen, sued OPPD last year when it tried to close its coal energy plant in favor of renewable energy sources. The lawsuit sought to prevent OPPD from considering anything other than price or reliability when choosing an energy source, including “environmental justice.”
Hilgers voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit after OPPD agreed to keep the plant open.