By Wayne Price

    At the heart of public power is local control -- community leaders making policy decisions so that utility services are in tune with customers’ needs and values.  At Nebraska’s public power districts and electric cooperatives, decisions on vital services that affect every home and business are made by a locally elected board of directors through an open and democratic process.  The publically elected board members understand their most important responsibility is to serve the needs of their customers and to protect the affordability of electricity and the reliability of the electric system.
    With local control also comes access for electric consumers.  Customers have a voice in the activities of their electric systems. Public Power is after all, the public’s business. An electric utility’s board of directors meets to discuss the current and future needs of the utility and to make decisions regarding the operations of the utility.  These board members vote to set rates and they participate in a wide variety of programs geared to improving Nebraska’s economy and overall quality of life. Of course these board meetings are open to the public and allow an opportunity for concerned customers to be heard.
    People like having a say in matters that affect them. And we are glad they do, as customer feedback helps keep us on track and pushes us to do better.

Our historic beginning
    In 1936, Nebraska Senator George Norris introduced, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed, the Rural Electrification Act.  This measure directed the REA administrator to give preference in making loans to rural power districts, providing the needed startup funds for electricity to be distributed across rural Nebraska.
    Rural Nebraskans demanding electric service began to come together forming public power districts and electric cooperatives and beginning the process of establishing an electric utility. Their objective was not to own electric utilities for profit, but simply to obtain service that would bring them into step with the rest of the modern world. The cooperative model fit with this goal because it did not require them to pay or collect profits from anyone. Those founders volunteered their time, their labor, their teams and equipment--whatever was needed to bring electric service to their homes. They knew it would be a high-cost service, because, in spite of their contributed services and their nonprofit operation, the numbers of electricity users per mile of line were still too few to share in the cost of providing the expensive service.
    They organized a state association, The Nebraska Rural Electric Association, (NREA) headquartered in Lincoln, to serve as their common voice and represent them in the state capital. Through the Association, they worked together to create joint programs and materials and to share the load of critical problems confronting all of them.
 
Voicing Your Opinion
    Do you have a concern you would like to bring to the attention of your electric utility?  Nebraska’s rural electric public power districts and electric cooperatives invite you to attend a board meeting.  At these meetings you can voice your opinion or share a concern directly with the board of directors. Every resident of Nebraska can provide input into how his or her local electric system is operated.