Rapid growth in eastern Nebraska has created record demand for electricity. Omaha Public Power District, a publicly owned electricity provider that serves nearly half of Nebraska’s population, reported its highest demand for electricity ever this summer.
On July 27, when the temperature reached 97 degrees and the heat index climbed to 120, OPPD customers used 3,285 megawatts of electricity. For context, if a typical American home were using multiple large appliances at once, 3,285 megawatts could power that household over 160,000 times. The previous record was a daily load demand of 2,980 megawatts.
Electricity demand has reached a new peak every summer since 2021, said OPPD spokesperson Grant Schulte. In addition, since 2019, the amount of energy used during the summer by OPPD customers has increased by an amount large enough to power the entire city of Lincoln…