Dawson Power Mixes Water And Electricity With Interesting Results

Removing irrigated acres could have a significant impact on our economy...

Two years ago, the Dawson Public Power board and management conducted a strategic planning effort to help the District identify threats and opportunities as we looked into the future.  One of the threats identified was the current practice of water management entities in the state buying up water rights, thereby reducing irrigated acres for the purpose of enhancing stream flow.

‘Significant impact’

This practice is being widely used on the Republican River Basin and now more recently on the Platte River in the areas that have been identified by the Department of Natural Resources as over or fully appropriated.  These parcels of land in essence become dryland and obviously produce less crop.  Our first inclination was to look at impacts on the District for stranded investment -- electric lines which were built to serve irrigation load that would be no longer used.  But as we examined the issue further we realized that the loss of crop production really has a huge impact on the rural agriculture economy in the areas affected.  This particular water management practice has significant impact on our farmers, agri-businesses, banks, counties, schools, and small towns in our service area.

Looking at the numbers

 The District wanted to examine this issue further and commissioned an Economic Impact study to be done by the Bureau of Business Research of the University of Nebraska Lincoln.  We have just received the preliminary results of the study and I will share with you some of the highlights.

The study area is Lincoln, Dawson, and Buffalo counties within the District service area.  Two scenarios were developed.  The first was a reduction of irrigated acres of 3,500 and the second was a reduction of 18,600 acres, both feasible objectives under current water management policy in place.  2010 average yields and pricing from the 2009 Agricultural Outlook were used in the model.

The direct annual impact of a reduction of crop sales, impact on business receipts, impacts on workers and wages along with loss of tax revenues were examined.

	Annual change in dollars per...
Economic Measure	3,500 acres removed	18,600 acres removed
Business receipts	-$2,229,000	-$11,847,000
Labor income	-$694,000	-$3,690,000
Employment	-26	-138

So what does this all mean? 

In my opinion, because of multi-state compacts and endangered species demands, water managers in the state of Nebraska are very focused on maintaining stream flows and have enacted regulations, such as irrigation reduction, to meet their objectives.  In that process, sufficient economic analysis was not done to develop understanding of the consequences that this type of regulation has on the local economy.  Maybe a cost benefit analysis should be required to enact such regulation in the future.  At the very least both environmental and economic benefits of changing water consumption need to be considered to help identify policies which yield the highest net benefit for all Nebraska residents.

Nebraska has been blessed with world class water resources.  Instead of fighting over who gets the water in the streams and rivers which are the remnants of the hydrological cycle, efforts need to be made to refocus on the complete water cycle and study the opportunities a water balance consumption model can bring.  Maybe it’s time for the next evolution of water policy development in Nebraska?

Until next time…

Robert Heinz, General Manager

Water Technology At Work

COURTESY OF KNOP -- www.knopnews2.com (Jacqueline Skarda)



For the full story, please go to this link: Water Technology At Work!

Nebraska Water Balance Alliance:  THREE GOALS
1.  Sound Groundwater Management
2.  Working Rivers
3.  Stable, Vibrant Nebraska Economy

The Memory Of A Paper Trail

The other day a business associate from another company asked me for our rate information for irrigation. Our electric rates are public so it was easy to comply with his request – REALLY EASY.  He had the data in hand within minutes of his request.  Then I stopped to think about the “before computer life” I used to live. 

Email has been revolutionary in the world of business communication. The use of email within a business can greatly increase productivity for employees. Although it cannot and should not replace all face-to-face communication and others forms of communication, internal email usage can cover many areas within the business.

Just a decade or so earlier, this request would have required paper, a copy machine, an envelope, ink, a stamp, and human handling by about 5 different people. Today it requires about 3 clicks of a mouse. For that one request alone, that electronic communication probably saved my company about $10-$15.

My granddaughters have never been without a computer. They have not had to rely on a public library to do a research paper and they have never had to fret about missed phone calls from friends. I don’t want to give away my age but a microwave oven was new technology when I was in my early teens.

In the future, all of our kids’ text books will be accessed through tablet devices. They will not need text book covers, a backpack, pens, pencils or erasers. Losing a text book is devastating but can you imagine how catastrophic it will be for this same teen to lose a tablet computer? That tablet device contains her text books, her homework; it contains her class notes, prior school papers, book reports, flash cards, pictures, email, her Facebook page, and her favorite games. It contains her addresses, phone numbers, doodles, diary and her calendar. Whoever found her iPad, Droid Tablet, Playbook or Nook just found her entire life. Scary thought, huh?

It is our future. People insist on finding the most convenient way possible to live their busy lives. They want an easy way to conduct transactions – whether its communication, paying a bill, accessing account information, making travel arrangements, looking up vacation spots, or shopping. It’s all there….under a keyboard, on top of a mouse, or sliding around a touchpad.

Dawson Power makes doing business with us easy and convenient. Customer-read meters are a thing of the past for most customers. Today our meters send your reading in automatically. You can receive your bill through email. With two clicks and a log-in you can pay it online. If you want to know what we’re up to on a daily basis….ask to be our friend on Facebook!

The Anatomy Of A Distribution System

This is great information for everyone. American Electric Power explains the pieces of a distribution system in language we all understand.



Special thanks to American Electric Power (http://www.aep.com).  

You can reach Dawson Public Power District at (308) 324-2386, http://www.dawsonpower.com; or on Facebook, keyword search dawsonpower

The Future of Power Costs in Nebraska

Looking at the kilowatt hour rate by state shows that Nebraska ranks 10th lowest in the nation. The Energy Information Administration (the source most used for comparing rates in all energy sectors) cites Nebraska’s average rate is 7.21¢ per kilowatt hour. Lowest on the scale is Wyoming which charges an average of 6.08¢ per kilowatt hour. As a nation, the average kilowatt hour cost is 9.82¢. Conversely, the state with the highest cost of electricity is Hawaii which charges an average of 21.21¢ per kilowatt hour.

Like Nebraska, Wyoming’s chief source of power is obtained through coal plants. Actually, 45% of our nation derives its electricity from coal; 23% is from natural gas; 20% from nuclear; 7% from hydro plants, 4% from renewables and 1% all other.

The EPA is expected to enact several key regulations in the coming decade that will have an impact on the U.S. power sector, particularly the fleet of coal-fired power plants. Because the rules have not yet been finalized, their impacts cannot be fully analyzed. Rest assured, any ruling by EPA will impact electric rates negatively because the EPA is focusing on our nation’s largest source of power…coal.

At a recent meeting hosted by Nebraska Public Power District, the general expectation is that NPPD will raise the wholesale cost of power by 6.5% for 2012. NPPD explains (click link) why the rate increase is necessary. In addition to other factors, they are citing a 75% increase in fuel costs as being the primary driver behind the increase.

About 60% of Dawson PPDs operating costs are wholesale power purchases. That means Dawson Power customers may see a 4% (estimate) increase in their rates simply based on NPPDs increase. We are also affected by rising fuel costs so there may be an adjustment to our projection as we do a cost of service study later this year.

The POWER to Kill

Part of our job at Dawson PPD is to educate people about electrical safety.  Sounds simple enough, but that’s the sort of thing that nags at you late at night when you can’t sleep.  It is a fine line… Do too much educating and you become the dreaded hall monitor with your pointer finger waving in the air.  On the other hand, if you don’t push safety education enough, someone may lose their life.

The other day I read an article about two high school students in Illinois who lost their lives trying to save a raccoon that had crawled into a piece of irrigation pipe.  They raised the pipe in hopes of freeing the rodent, but when it came into contact with a power line they were electrocuted.  In that instant, life changed.  Two families lost their sons.  Classmates lost their friends and had to face the harsh reality that “it COULD actually happen to them.”  Had the young men not heard about safety near power lines or was it a momentary lapse in judgment with a catastrophic consequence?  We (the employees of Dawson PPD) don’t want a similar accident to happen here.

We love to be able to teach electrical safety to people of all ages.  We’ve talked to county roads department employees and students all across ‘Dawsonland.’  Perhaps one of our favorite opportunities is the Farm Safety Day Camp in North Platte where we can teach 400 kids about electrical safety.  As we explain electrical safety, we tell the kids to pass the message on to their friends and families.

Several years ago, I talked to a young man who had heard the electrical safety message at a farm safety event.  His name was Patrick.  While doing spring field work, Patrick got a little too close to a power line with the farm equipment he was using.  He knew that he was safe in the tractor that he was driving.  He stayed in the tractor until a lineman came and made sure the line was no longer energized. We know that Patrick got the message.  He shared his story with others in hopes that it would keep them safe too.  Although we would rather that people didn’t run into power lines or our poles, we need more people like Patrick that know what to do if it does happen.   

So, please don’t “tune out” when Dawson PPD promotes electrical safety.  We’ll try not to nag… but this stuff is important.  It can be the difference between life and death.

Marsha Banzhaf, Public Relations Coordinator
Dawson Public Power District

WATER - A FRESH LOOK AT A TOUGH PROBLEM – THE WATER BALANCE APPROACH



Ogallala Aquifer

 I am not a water expert in any way. But I do know that water is extremely important to everyone in Nebraska. In the past, Nebraskans were fortunate in that we had just about all the water available that everyone needed. Well, that changed with the latest drought. Now, we have competition for limited water resources. Under the compact agreement, Nebraska must deliver sufficient water to Kansas for compliance, even in water short years. This has become an extremely volatile issue for everyone in the Republican River valley. On the Platte, the endangered species act will require an ever larger amount of water to meet compliance issues. In both cases integrated resource plans have been developed by the natural resource districts and the department of Natural Resources and if river flows are not sufficient, water limiting and irrigation shut-down is expected.


This course of action will end up having devastating results on the agricultural economy in Nebraska. In the Dawson Public Power service territory, the Platte River is considered over allocated from Elm Creek west to Southerland. If in a given irrigation season the quick response wells are shut down (those within 2 1/2 miles of the river), at today’s rates the District would lose $3.8M in revenues as a direct consequence of that action. Every rural Dawson customer and most businesses we serve in that portion of the valley will have substantial negative impacts as well. This appears to be the path we are now going down.

Recently, I had a chance to listen to a gentleman by the name of Frank Kwapnioski who is promoting a concept called the water balance approach to managing our water resources. This is not a new concept, it has been successfully used in China and elsewhere. In essence it takes all of the current data, water studies and water models currently being used and incorporates this information into a comprehensive basin wide approach to water management. It looks at all consumptive uses in the basin on all parts of the basin, not just irrigation and stream flows. This concept will look at all the water going into the basin, how that water is being used, and how much leaves the basin.

As I said at the beginning of this article, I am not a water expert, but I feel the path we are now on will lead to negative results for too many in my part of Nebraska. I believe the water balance approach to managing our water resources is fresh new look and deserves a fair hearing to determine its merits. It sure can’t hurt.

Robert Heinz, General Manager
Dawson Public Power District