OPPD CEO Responds to Political Pressure from Both Sides

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Vordiez.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
You've got a lot of different political factions leaning on OPPD.
Your energy partner, your electric utility here, had gone through
a process a few years ago where they talked about
phasing out a coal fired power plant in northeast Omaha.
And there are people activists, whether it's environmental or community base,

(00:24):
that say, hey, keep your promise, shut it down. You've
got people on the other side, like Nebraska Attorney General
Mike Hildris, who'd already filed a lawsuit saying, you've got
to keep that thing open. We have to be able
to generate enough electricity. We've got more customers, more pressure
on the grid right now, we've got data centers and
all the rest. You got to keep that thing open.

(00:45):
In the middle and in the studio, you've got the
president and CEO of OPPD, Javier Fernandez, with us on
Nebraska's News, weather and Traffic station. I really appreciate you
coming in. Thank you very much for joining me.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Having me.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
So that's what's the issue, as you well know, what's
the solution.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, you know, the solution is complicated.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I was afraid you were going to say that.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Like a true politician, you know, but at the end
of the day, I think it's important for us to
go back and talk about what is our mission.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Our mission is to provide affordable and reliable energy to
our customers, any customer. Right. We have an obligation to
serve anyone coming to our service territory. Whether you're building
a new house, you're starting a new business, or you're
building a big factory, we have to be there for you.
And so that to me, it's a very very important
north star that both myself and all board members always

(01:40):
keep in mind. That is our responsibility. You were talking
about earlier, you mentioned the word promise. Well, that is
in many ways, in many ways, the only promise we
have to have, right to have that life sustaining electricity
that is abundant, available, and that our customer owners can
rely and can afford on an ongoing basis.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
You and I know that the board of OPPD had
decided a few years ago that you would phase out
this coal fired power plant in Northeast Omaha by next year, right, correct?
And so is this gonna happen or not?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Well, I don't know. You know, at the end of
the day, this decision is up to my board members.
This is one of the beauties of public power. They're
elected officials. They are the ones who make them.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Their meeting on Tuesday, I would think that you would
either go to them or they would come to you
as president and CEO, and ask for your expert opinion
on the matter. Do you have one way or the
other you feel this should go.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
We do, and we're actually going to present a proposed
resolution for the board to consider. We're gonna talk about
that on Tuesday on an open meeting at our old
committees meeting, and then the plan is for our board.
Every time we have a big decision like these, they
usually allow for a thirty day public common period. They
want to hear from the public, and the idea would
be for the board to take action in December. So

(03:02):
that's our recommendation is going to be reflected in that resolution.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Okay, So I don't think I'm going to get an
answer from you today here, let me try another chance
of asking. That's a different way. If they shut down
this coal fired plant in northeast Omaha, do we have
enough energy? Can we generate enough electricity after that shut
down next year to be able to meet the needs
of oppd's right payers and customers.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
It would make it a lot more challenging to that.
But let me just start by saying that our customer
owners are their will taken care of right. Our engineers,
our planners have worked really, really hard. They work tirelessly
twenty four hours a day to make sure that our
customers are always without with power that's reliable. However, many

(03:51):
things have changed, and I'm going to talk about this very quickly.
Our ability to keep the lights on, especially in the tough,
fast days of the winter or the summer, that has
become harder and harder as time goes by. So keeping
a power plant online, especially in the winter, in the
dead of the winter, when it's twenty degrees below zero,

(04:14):
it's super important for us to have all the possible
assets we have available to have them online to make
sure that we can provide electricity. That's incredibly important. In
addition to that, we also have many many customers residential, commercial,
industrial customers that want to move to Omaha, and that

(04:34):
is a blessing right. We are blessed with all of
these interests of people who want to grow the economy.
We have to have power, we have to have normally generation,
but transmission and everything ready for them to come in
and fulfill their dreams. We have to be there before
they come.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Obviously, the incredibly cold temperatures that can hit in the winter,
the incredibly hot temperatures we get in the summer put
a strain on the grid. Long time opp BD customers,
long time Omaha residents, will say, I don't remember as
many times as the electricity going out during those times,
whether it's storms, extreme weather conditions. Because I'll tell you

(05:11):
right now, it's going to be really cold at times
throughout this winter and really hot next summer. We're going
to have some windstorms in the spring. This is just
the nature of how things are around here. What longtime
Omaha customer OPPD customers say is I don't remember as
much as many times as we had rolling brownouts or
or outages stretching as long as they did before. Things

(05:34):
like and these are some of the accusations that I.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Know you hear.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
The OPPD board has tried to put more of an
emphasis on green energy that some people say, this is
not going to meet our needs. And on the other side,
we also have these big data centers that are sucking
up a lot of energy and OPPD customers, right or wrong,
say how come I don't have electricity at my place,
but that big data center down the way they seem

(05:59):
to have their lights on. That's a lot to respond to.
You've got time to do it well.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
So let me just start by reminding you and your
listeners back on February fifteen of twenty twenty one, the region,
for the first time ever, we experienced rolling blackouts. That's
a real thing. That was because of Texas, right, That
was because of a number of factors. It was because
of a cold snap that hit all the way down
to Texas. So it affected all of us on our
ability to serve customers. That is precisely the type of

(06:28):
thing that we're trying to avoid all the time. So
for that, we need every single tool in our toolbox
to make sure that we have enough power available. Going
back to the renewable energy for a minute, I think
where we are today in the nation, especially here at OPPD,
we have an enormous amount of demand coming online. We

(06:50):
have a lot of challenges on the grid. I think
for me, it's a false choice for us to say, well,
I want that technology but not the other type. Today
it's an all of the We need electrons in the grid,
we need them as fast as we possibly can, and
we need to keep as many electrons in the grid
as we as we have. Renewable energy has its places,

(07:11):
we can build it fast, rights, it has its own challenges,
just like natural gas, like nuclear and coal. For me,
an electron is an electron, right. It doesn't really matter
where it comes from. It has to provide that life
sustaining energy around the clock twenty four to seven, three
sixty five.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
But there are people who say, I don't see anyone
shutting down the solar array planned around Norfolk. I don't
see anyone shutting down the more wind turbines in some
areas around the country. What we do see is four
Calhoun Nuclear power plant shut down. We see the promise
of shutting down the Northeast Omaha coal fire power plant.
And at the same time, you say, to do that

(07:52):
might be a problem for getting energy to the customers.
And this goes back to the accusation that opp D,
through decisions made by board or whatever, has gone all
in on a type of technology that maybe isn't there
yet to meet the needs. Because they're trying to satisfy
a political persuasion.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, and part of you talk about timing, and timing
is probably the main issue here. We have to also
acknowledge we have aging infrastructure. Some of these units are old,
They're seventy plus years old. At some point we have
to retire them. It's a responsible thing to do. I
think the issue here is right now, we have demand
that is coming to us faster than we can build

(08:33):
new power plans. And so the question that my board
is going to have to decide on is do we
pause our plans. We have that our North Omaha power station.
At some point we're going to have to replace that
power We're going to have to retire those machines. Should
we retire them this quickly? Should we wait while we

(08:56):
build new generation? That is the question for my board,
And I think this is where you can argue there
are many many benefits of keeping that power plant on
for reliability purposes, and rest assured that that is not
the only solution. Right after that, we have to get
going and build more power plants so that we can
continue to meet the needs of our customers.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Talking here with Javier Fernandez, President and CEO of OPPD
State Senator Terrell McKenny Northeast Omaha has said that there
are environmental and health reasons why this coal fired plant
should be shut down. There are plenty of reports out
there that say, yeah, we can see a link. There
are other ones that say, it's not exactly a real

(09:39):
direct causal link. Have you looked into the matter? Does
he have a point?

Speaker 1 (09:43):
We have?

Speaker 3 (09:44):
And let me just start by saying, we respect I
personal respect every single person who comes to our board
meeting and expresses their opinion under concern, I empathize with them.
But we as a science based organization, as an engineer organization,
we have to take that very seriously. We can play
with every single environmental regulation that we have on all
of our power plants and on every aspect of the company.

(10:05):
But further to look into these issues, to these allegations,
We've ran studies, We've commissioned assessments, and those have come
back recently saying that there is really no significant risk
imposts from the power plant into the into the human
health of the community. Those reports, again, they will be
available online, and it doesn't mean that they have to

(10:27):
change the mind of the perspective of people. But I
think it's important for us to know whether or not
those allegations are true scientifically or there's more to it.
That we can always partner with the community and work
with them in ways that are productive.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
The aforementioned State Senator Terrell McKinney is also a Land
Justice director for Bold Alliance formerly Bold Nebraska. This was
headed up and a lot of long time Nebraska's No
they shut down the trans Atlantic pipeline through Nebraska through
I mean, that's a simplified way of putting it. But
they don't like fossil fuels. Is fossil fuel is a

(11:04):
bad word.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
You know, that's on the of the beholder. For me
as the President CEO of OPPD, the most important thing
is is generating electrons and if we use fossil fuels
to do that, we have to make sure that we're
complying with environmental laws and be a responsible partner for
the community.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
So your board is meeting on Tuesday. You're going to
present and assist with presenting options for this particular power
power plant in northeast Omaha, as well as what else
happens on Tuesday, is this like the full long term
plans for OPPD throughout twenty twenty six or are we
just talking about this plant?

Speaker 3 (11:41):
On Tuesday, We're going to talk about this plan in particular, okay,
but we're also going to talk about an integrated system plan,
which is a long process that's going to go on
next year. That says, okay, In addition to this plan,
what else do we need to build? What other equipment
and infrastructure we need to build? So we're going to
talk about that all throughout next year. On Tuesday, were
also going to present our budget for next years. So

(12:02):
it's going to be a big meeting. I would love
of really good information in there.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
So I get a chance to talk to you for
a few more minutes. So we'll rejoin this conversation with
the President and CEO of OPPD Javier Fernandez, after Jim
Rose helps us know the foe. There is no foe
this week, but Jim has a commentary anyway on Big
Red Radio in just a moment, and then more with
Javier Fernandez involving things like cutting down trees around power

(12:26):
lines so we don't have as many outages after a windstorm,
and we glossed over that Texas thing from a few
years ago. We'll get back on it next right here
on Nebraska's news, weather and traffic station.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Scott Voices News Radio eleven to ten KFAB.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
I don't know if we're in like we're the new
windy city, but Omaha is. We've had more crazy windstorms
here in the last few years than I ever remember,
and I've lived most of my life here. Anytime we
have big win and especially during times when you got
leaves on trees, you get the trees that grow up
around the power lines and knocks down the power lines.

(13:06):
You have transformers all over the place blowing. You got
lines need to be reconnected. It takes a longer and
longer time, more and more homes and businesses to get
everyone reconnected. And then you got the same people that
complain about not having power saying they oppd came out
there and they whacked away at all these trees and
they made them all ugly to clear out around the
power lines. Is there a way of resolving this? All

(13:30):
of this issue haveavier.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Well, you know, I can't promise to make everyone happy
all the time, and I think that's the issue here.
The communication and transparency is very, very important. And while
while customer owners may not always like the solution that
we have, like cuton trees. I think it's important for
us to go to them and very very clearly explain
what's at stake and what rights we have. Right. A

(13:52):
lot of these trees and transmission lines we have right away,
we've purchased those a long time ago, right, And then
so the agreement was we won't let trees grows too
tall because that can compromise not only the reliability of
the system, but it could also compromise the safety of
the people or the homes living nearby. But to your point, yeah,

(14:12):
we've been having lots of storms and we have responded
to that. When I joined OPPD as a CFO back
in twenty seventeen, we were investing maybe six or seven
million dollars a year on tree trimming or vegetation management.
Today we're over twenty five million dollars per year. And

(14:32):
what we're doing with that is trying to get to
every single tree as frequently as we can so to
avoid it growing too much.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
But when you guys come out, you're not arborist in
terms of how would you like this tree shaped and
how can we do that. I mean, some you guys
are out there as like a demolition derby. We are
clearing the path in many instances.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Well, it depends. So if we have a big transmission line,
a lot of times we do have to remove the
tree from the root. When we have distribution lines, these
are the probably the most common ones, the most common
ones in your neighborhoods. You have branches, and we have arborists. Actually,
we hire arborists to come in and they trim trees.
They lit the tree continue to grow open in a
way that it doesn't interfere with the power lines. Our

(15:14):
goal is to get to each one of these trees
every five years. We're not there today.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
There's nothing that stops a homeowner from looking out the
window seeing the trees getting dangerously close to power lines
and themselves taking upon themselves to call their own arborists
to come out there and trim the tree before it
knocks down the power line. And because of your inattended
homeowner abilities, you've knocked out power of the entire neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
There.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
That's that sermon. Let's talk about with just our last
minute and a half or so remaining, the Southwest power Pool,
Texas gets a little bit of cold weather snap and
suddenly we have rolling brownouts in Omaha. It happened. If
we have the same phenomenon here this winter where Texas
or Oklahoma gets a little bit of ice and they
all lose their minds? Do we have we fixed the

(15:59):
problems that happen a few years ago so they don't
happen again this year?

Speaker 3 (16:02):
I can tell you today we are in a much
better spot. How we fix them completely? No, we're actually
in the middle of that. Part of the conversation we
have today is the Southwest Powerpool has required all of
us utilities who belong to the Southwest Powerpool to have
a lot more generators available in the winter precisely to
respond to that, so that we are never in that
same spot. But it takes years for us to build

(16:23):
that generation.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Are we more givers or takers with the Southwest power pools?
In other words, does it help us? Does it benefit
OPPD to be a part of it?

Speaker 3 (16:31):
It depends on the time of the year, and again
it's a politician response. It depends. There are many times
when we are givers, we are producing more than what
we're consuming and we're selling it to the market. But
there are other times when we are takers. For example,
today we have a few of our power plants. They're
offline doing preventive maintenance, getting ready for the winter. Well,
in days like today, we are importing power from the

(16:52):
Southwest Powerpool and we rely on that bilateral relationship with
other utilities.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Oh, it's easy to be the president and CEO of
OPPD on a beautiful daylight today, open the windows and
enjoy it. I really enjoyed this conversation. Let's have more. Okay,
that sounds good. It is Javier Fernandez here on news
radio eleven ten KFAB. Have a great weekend. Clay and
Buck our next

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Scott Voices mornings nine to eleven our news Radio eleven
ten KFAB.