Oct. / Nov. / Dec. 2009 - Nebraska Public Power District

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14 ENERGY INSIGHT • OCTOBER / NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2009 Norfolk fire prompts evacuations Firefighters responded to a huge blaze around 7 a.m. on Dec. 10 at the closed Protient plant in Norfolk. Officials cleared everyone in a one- mile radius in Norfolk because they were concerned a 30,000 gallon propane tank would explode. NPPD’s Centralized Customer Care Center was evacuated around 9 a.m. During the evacuation, NPPD transferred incoming customer calls to its Norfolk, Kearney and Scottsbluff Customer Service Centers and a temporary call center was set up at the Columbus General Office. “This event was an excellent test of the contingency plan we have in place for our facility. We’ve drilled for emergencies, but a drill can’t compare to an actual situation. We discovered some things in the plan worked really well, and we also found some improvement areas.” - Cindy LaCroix Customer Services Leader By noon, crews had contained much of the fire. It took three crews to turn off the flow of propane fueling the fire. NPPD Call Center staff resumed normal operations at 1:22 that afternoon. Customer Care Business Manager Russ McKillip expressed his appreciation to NPPD staff across the state who helped during this emergency. “This was an outstanding showing of professionalism and excellence for which we have all come to expect from our NPPD colleagues,” he said. “Keeping our employees safe is always our top priority, followed closely be keeping the lines of communication open for our customers.” Protient had manufactured and marketed dairybased ingredients for dairy products. It closed in October 2008. A temporary call center was established at the General Office.
Entergy Nuclear signs until 2029 An extension to the Cooper Nuclear Station Support Services Agreement with Entergy Nuclear was approved by NPPD’s Board of Directors at its December meeting. The amendment extends the current agreement for an additional term of 15 years until Jan. 18, 2029. “The decision to extend the Support Services Agreement was based on the significant improvements in regulatory and operational performance realized at CNS since the beginning of the agreement in October 2003.” - President and CEO Ron Asche ENERGY INSIGHT • OCTOBER / NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2009 15 “I believe that NPPD and Entergy have established an effective partnership that bodes well for the future of CNS. NPPD has invested heavily in the plant to help set the stage for License Renewal. Preliminary work is also being performed to evaluate the feasibility of an extended power uprate for CNS. Our partnership with Entergy supports both of these longterm objectives.” “An additional feature of the amendment is to change certain provisions pertaining to compensation of Entergy that will allow NPPD to meet certain IRS tax exempt debt financing tests. This change, in conjunction with the expiration of the MidAmerican Power Sales Contract later this year, will allow the District to use tax exempt debt, instead of higher cost taxable debt, to finance capital projects at Cooper. This will result in lower overall power costs for Cooper Station in the future,” said Asche. In written comments to CNS employees, Asche said, “The Support Services Agreement has allowed NPPD to remain in the nuclear generation business which is a proud part of our heritage. It remains important to our Board that NPPD retain the CNS operating license. The Board also recognizes the importance of all the NPPD employees that help manage and operate the plant on a daily basis. It would be extremely challenging to operate in today’s environment without the benefit of the fleet affiliation that the agreement with Entergy allows. With climate change concerns, having CNS as an important part of our diverse generation mix is now more critical than ever.”
Page 1 and 2: Current news about Nebraska Public
Page 3 and 4: Wash your hands. That’s a common
Page 5 and 6: than in the past. NPPD recently rev
Page 7 and 8: The rate increase will also generat
Page 9 and 10: An NPPD Facebook account was set up
Page 11 and 12: Norfolk Operations Center trio star
Page 13: Cooper completes refueling and main
Page 17 and 18: York / Cindy Klein, Customer Servic
Page 19 and 20: Tyler Micek, son of Records Analyst
Page 21 and 22: on the Kris Anderson, human resourc
Page 23 and 24: Ron Hostetter honored with Archway
Page 25 and 26: Charlie Magnussen celebrates retire
Page 27 and 28: J A N U A R Y of events 1 New Year

Oct. / Nov. / Dec. 2009 - Nebraska Public Power District

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