NPPD presents 1,400 MW expansion plan, 35-year wholesale contract and modest rate outlook at North Platte work session

Tom Kemp, president and CEO of Nebraska Public Power District, told the North Platte City Council at a Sept. 16 work session that NPPD expects rapid load growth in Nebraska and is proposing a revised 35-year wholesale power contract and new generation to meet that demand.

Kemp said NPPD projects about 700 megawatts of likely firm load growth in the next few years plus roughly another 600 megawatts of potential load they are “working through the process,” and described plans to add about 1,400 megawatts of new generation over the next six to seven years. He said the new build program would be financed with revenue bonds and estimated the investment at roughly $2.6–$2.7 billion in today’s dollars.

The presentation emphasized resource adequacy requirements from the multistate Southwest Power Pool (SPP). “Resource adequacy basically says that the load responsible entities have enough generation available in that extreme case where something extraordinary has happened,” Kemp said, describing a planning standard used across the SPP footprint. He said SPP expectations are rising as load grows and the region’s resource mix changes.

Kemp outlined specific projects and supply measures already under way: contracts for major turbines have been issued for Princeton Road Station (near Sheldon Station) and NPPD plans multiple combustion turbines at Beatrice Power Plant. He said short-term capacity purchases also fill gaps while new resources are built, and that Friday of the same week NPPD would seek certification of public need and necessity from the state Power Review Board for the Princeton Road project.

On costs and rates, Kemp told council members NPPD has not had a wholesale rate increase for eight years and returned nearly $400 million in production-cost adjustments to customers over the past seven years. He said the board was considering a recommendation for a 1% wholesale rate increase in 2026 and projected a rate path of 2%, 2%, 3%, 3% and 3% through 2031, with higher collections in later years intended to begin paying for the new resources. “With this new wholesale power contract, we expect to remain in the first quartile [of costs] well into the future,” Kemp said.

The proposed contract contains several governance and exit provisions that NPPD described as material changes from the 2016 agreement. Kemp said the new contract would: extend the term to 35 years, create a formal 11-member customer committee to increase intentional engagement with the NPPD board on resource planning and rates, and reintroduce a capped-purchases option that would allow a wholesale customer to cap purchases from NPPD after a decade. He also described a new early-termination/exit framework that would allow a customer to leave under defined terms while requiring that any departing customer pay its share of outstanding production-facility principal.

Kemp said the contract preserves a performance metric tied to production-cost performance; that metric can reduce an exit fee by up to 20% if a customer signs before Oct. 31, 2025. He also described arbitration for rate disputes, more flexible treatment of qualifying local generation (including the ability to transfer unused local generation credits between wholesale customers), and a provision that would allow a municipality to cap purchases under defined conditions.

Council members asked about local implications. One questioner asked whether the proposed Perkins County Canal project might enable new hydropower; Kemp said additional storage proposals could improve existing hydro availability but he was not aware of proposals that would create new hydro generation. Council members also asked how NPPD evaluates large industrial customers against job creation; Kemp said staff work with local economic development partners and that the utility considers the community’s development targets when allocating large loads.

Kemp described NPPD’s generation mix and reliability record—including Gerald Gentleman Station (coal), Cooper Nuclear Station and a mix of hydro, gas, wind and solar—and said the utility’s diversified portfolio helps manage cost and reliability risks. He said NPPD operates more than 5,000 miles of transmission and reported a transmission availability of 99.92%.

The work session was informational; no formal council action was taken. Council members thanked Kemp and NPPD board representatives for the presentation and the agencies’ long-term relationship with North Platte.

Ending: Kemp said NPPD would bring contract documents and specific production-date schedules to its board later in the year and that the utility expects construction and financing decisions to continue over the next decade as projects are sited and built.