NPPD brief to Kearney council: nearly $10 million in lease payments, solar output and a mostly carbon-free mix

Grant Flamick of the Nebraska Public Power District presented NPPD’s community energy report to the Kearney City Council, summarizing local and system-wide statistics and fielding council questions about rates and future generation.

Flamick said NPPD collected and remitted nearly $10 million in lease payments to the city and nearly $500,000 in city sales tax, and noted $2.1 million in gross revenue tax was paid to Buffalo County in 2024. He said NPPD processed roughly $125,000 in customer incentives in Kearney for measures such as LED lighting and insulation, and that a local community solar project generated about 10,000,000 kilowatt-hours. "We are considered 58% carbon free," Flamick told the council, and he listed nuclear, hydro, wind and solar as included in that figure; he also said approximately 28% of NPPD’s mix is coal and about 9% is purchased power.

Flamick described system-scale numbers — roughly 93,000 customers served across NPPD's territory, about 1,900 employees, and 3,200 MW of generation total — and said NPPD is pursuing contracts to build roughly 700 MW of new generation near Lincoln to improve capacity and bond ratings. He also confirmed NPPD has not had a sustained rate increase in 11 years and referenced modest increases (a small increase in one year, 2% last year and a projected 3% this year for retail customers).

Council members asked for more specific solar-rate pricing and were told NPPD could provide detailed numbers in follow-up. Flamick said the utility evaluates community solar and other projects on cost and federal incentive timing and that in some cases combining projects reduced per-kilowatt costs for subscribers, but "it just doesn't pencil out" for additional expansion in Kearney at this time.