Officials called in a heavy-duty snow blower on Saturday afternoon to open a path to stranded motorists on U.S. Highway 92 in Saunders County. (Courtesy of the Nebraska State Patrol)
On Sunday, Jan. 14, the Omaha Public Power District posted an email to customers urging us to conserve energy, explaining that “high energy demand” brought about by the cold temperatures was causing this emergency. This plea was followed by a telephone message to customers, presumably to reach those who do not have access to email. Subsequent newspaper reports suggest that outages were avoided, luckily.
I have lived in Nebraska for decades, and experienced far more severe temperatures than those that occurred this past weekend without loss of power. Winter temperature extremes are common and predictable, and higher than usual energy demands are certainly expected. Despite this certainty, OPPD nearly failed to meet that demand.
OPPD’s website states its mission is to “provide affordable, reliable and environmentally sensitive energy services to our customers.” Reliability is not an unreasonable expectation.