General

Summer heat and energy demand drive new OPPD load record 

A steamy summer and growing demand for electricity recently pushed OPPD’s load to a new record high. 

The utility logged a peak demand of 3,285 megawatts on July 27, according to recently confirmed numbers. The temperature that day reached a sweltering 97 degrees, and heat index values (the “feels like” temperature) topped 120 degrees. 

OPPD tends to hit peaks during extreme hot and cold spells, and the utility’s unprecedented load growth plays a big role as well. 

“It’s been going up, for sure,” said Robin Spady, OPPD’s director of Energy Regulation. “It challenges the system, and that has spurred all of us at OPPD to come up with new approaches and intentional investments so we can continue to provide our customers with reliable service.” 

OPPD has seen a new summer peak every year since 2021. Since 2019, the utility’s peak winter load has grown by 670 megawatts – the equivalent of adding a city the size of Spokane, Washington. The summer load jumped 849 megawatts during that time, roughly the amount of power needed to serve the city of Lincoln. 

Vital planning

The new peak underscores the need for careful planning, including the work on OPPD’s ongoing Integrated System Plan (ISP), to prepare for future development. The ISP is a high-level road map, based on engineering forecasts and public input, that will guide the utility’s work over the next decade. 

“We have to ensure we’re carefully aligning resources to our load forecast and properly planning for a system that is growing,” said Shannon Coleman, OPPD’s director of Energy Portfolio Planning. “We want to make sure we use all the information that we can in preparing the forecast.” 

Many other large utilities are facing similar growth as the global economy expands, diversifies and electrifies. The Southwest Power Pool, a regional transmission organization whose membership includes OPPD, has seen similar jumps throughout its 17-state territory stretching from Texas to North Dakota and Utah to Iowa 

On July 27, the same day that marked OPPD’s record, SPP hit its own all-time high summer peak of 58,127 megawatts. SPP is a regional transmission organization that allows member utilities, including OPPD, to efficiently pool and diversify their resources to ensure reliability. 

Meeting demand

As demand for electricity surges, OPPD is working proactively to prepare and fulfill those needs while managing costs. 

The utility has added a combination of 1,500 megawatts of natural gas generation (online and planned) since 2019, plus 1,800 total megawatts of renewable energy. At the same time, customer rates have gone from 10% below the national average to 30% below as the utility manages costs. 

“This growth requires us to be plan carefully and anticipate a variety of scenarios about future customer demand,” Coleman said. “Our goal is to always provide reliable, affordable and environmentally sensitive energy – and thoughtful preparation years in advance helps us achieve that.”