General

OPPD partners with Omaha firm
to add new natural gas generation 

OPPD has partnered with Kiewit Corporation, an Omaha-based construction and engineering firm, to add new natural gas generation and upgrade two existing natural gas turbines. 

The agreement announced Tuesday paves the way for three new natural gas units at OPPD’s Cass County Station and one additional unit at Turtle Creek Station in Sarpy County. 

Each unit can generate up to 225 megawatts (MW) of electricity and spool up quickly to help respond to grid and load demand as needed. 

The natural gas stations are critical for winter reliability and when demand is at its highest. The combination of renewables, storage and natural gas is the most economical way to satisfying system reliability and compliance. 

“Serving customers is our fundamental obligation as a public power utility, and we’re thrilled to take these large steps forward,” said Brad Underwood, vice president of Systems Transformation. “I’m proud and grateful for all the hard-working, highly engaged planners, engineers and operators at OPPD who are moving eastern Nebraska toward an increasingly bright future.”   

Kiewit’s power division will also help OPPD convert two natural gas units at Cass County Station to dual fuel generators, allowing them to run on either natural gas or fuel oil as a backup. Being able to use multiple fuels gives OPPD more flexibility with its operations. 

Combined, the new generation turbines at Turtle Creek and Cass County Stations will generate around 900 MW once all work is complete – roughly the peak summer load of the city of Lincoln. 

“From this point forward, Kiewit is going to start with detailed design work,” said Jacob Glair, OPPD’s thermal energy resources manager. 

‘A great opportunity’

OPPD has already acquired the four new combustion SGT6-5000F turbines from Siemens Energy. Unlike other sources that might take hours to generate at full capacity, each turbine offers rapid startup and shutdown capabilities. 

Under the agreement with OPPD, Kiewit will design everything necessary to set up and operate the turbines efficiently and procure all materials for the project. Kiewit will also handle construction work, which is expected to start in early Spring 2025 at Cass County Station and shortly thereafter at Turtle Creek Station. 

“The need for power is growing very quickly,” said Joe Lang, OPPD’s director of Generation Strategy and Origination. “This offered us a great opportunity to construct new generation at existing facilities.” 

Lang said power generated by the new units will provide grid support for the planned retirements of Units 1, 2 and 3 at OPPD’s North Omaha Station and the conversion of Units 4 and 5 from coal to natural gas. 

Why it matters

OPPD is seeing record load growth as more customers, big and small, set up service in eastern Nebraska. 

“Eastern Nebraska is thriving, and additional generation is absolutely needed to support that growth,” Lang said. 

OPPD must also comply with new regulatory requirements. The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) recently approved increases to the planning reserve margins (PRM) that its member utilities, including OPPD, must maintain in their daily operations. 

The SPP is a regional organization that helps ensure reliable, affordable power and efficient transmission infrastructure throughout the central United States. Much like an air traffic controller, the SPP coordinates the safe and sustainable use of the regional power grid. 

Planning reserve margins represent the amount of power utilities must keep available beyond their peak projected demand to guard against unplanned stresses on the regional grid. The latest PRMs require utilities to have enough generating capacity to serve their peak consumption, plus an additional 36% margin in winter and 16% in summer, starting in 2026. That’s a sharp increase from previous years. 

“These facilities are needed to help with load growth and to satisfy the increasing planning reserve margins,” Lang said. 

Reliability and resiliency

The dual fuel capability will help in winter because it gives OPPD another option to run its generators when natural gas is scarce due to high demand, or when it makes more financial sense to use fuel oil, he said. 

“It’s huge for reliability and resiliency purposes,” he said. 

Glair said OPPD is aiming to have the new units online and operational by 2029, barring any unforeseen developments. 

The turbines are part of OPPD’s proactive efforts to prepare for future load growth. The utility has already submitted interconnection applications to the SPP to connect the turbines to the larger regional grid. The process that can take years due to a backlog in the SPP queue. 

“We’re always looking strategically at time frames and locations that we may need in the future,” Glair said. “This is just one of those instances.”