OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — "How close were we to those rolling blackouts? 'This time around we were not nearly as close as we were in 2021 and part of that was the preparations of our facilities, part of that's the Southwest Power Pool’s utilization of assets and preparedness," said Ryan Gerdts, director of production operations at OPPD.
All this, and the wind showed up.
"OPPD, the neighboring utilities, in this situation wind generation showed up and helped provide that extra generation for our customers," Gerdts said.
Gerdts explained that OPPD has a variety of types of energy generation. Including coal, natural gas and renewable energy.
The North Omaha plant is coal which needs a lot of water, but that water comes from the Missouri river.
OPPD president and CEO Javier Fernandez acknowledged - that posed a challenged.
"The water levels at our North Omaha intake, they are just below 4 feet of water, both of them are below the critical levels that we need to run those generators," Fernandez said.
Plus, the river was freezing over so they needed to heat the water as it came into the plant - using heaters and steam.
"We use steam, so our power plants generate steam, we have safe and effective ways that we are able to utilize those along the equipment on the river," Gerdts said.
Employees even were seen chipping ice off the intake screens.
"All the power plants on the Missouri River, those are traveling water screens, so those remove debris and keep fish where they need to be in the river and when those ice up, it creates the challenge of operating the plant," Gerdts said.
With icy river conditions, OPPD said the diversity of its generation really stepped in.
"If one facility, that type of generation isn't working the way it needs to be, we have diversity in our fleet, we are able to cover that load," Gerdts said.
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