By Barb Fowler, Polk County Rural Public Power District General Manager

   Recently, I paused to think about what it would have been like during those first days of electric power, waiting (im)patiently for it to finally reach me living out in the sticks.
 I was watching 1923, the Yellowstone spinoff, when Helen Mirren’s character, upon reading the Bozeman newspaper headline that electricity was coming to the valley, exasperatedly exclaimed “IT’S ABOUT TIME!”. The Yellowstone ranch was located in the sticks and I can only imagine the frustration of waiting for electricity to make its move from the big city to her rural ranch.  It was clear she was relieved to finally be on the radar to receive access to the basic necessity the city folks were already receiving. Enter scene: Public Power

In Nebraska, Public Power began in the early 1900s with the belief that electricity should be accessible and affordable to everyone, not just the wealthy or those living in the larger cities. At that time, private power companies provided unsafe, unreliable, and expensive electric service in densely populated areas. In response, civic-minded citizens and elected officials began the movement to form publicly owned utilities that would be controlled by and operated in the best interests of the communities they serve. In 1933, Nebraska’s Legislature passed a law allowing the formation of public power districts and soon the first public power district was formed by a group of local businessmen and farmers to provide electricity to rural communities not being served by private companies. The success of this first public power district served as a role model and the founders assisted in the formation of other public power districts across Nebraska, the only state served entirely by customer-owned electric utilities.
     This marked the beginning of the collaborative effort of public power districts in working together to provide safe, reliable, and affordable energy to all Nebraskans. No matter the size, public power districts engage in activities together to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. Public power districts perform joint planning of their electric systems to avoid redundancy and ensure interconnection abilities that allow neighboring utilities to lean on each other in urgent situations.
     Public power districts may share personnel and equipment resources or participate in joint purchasing to capture economies of scale or mitigate supply chain issues. Public power districts across the state come together through electric utility statewide organizations, such as the Nebraska Rural Electric Association and the Nebraska Power Association, to work together on the development and training of our workforce and to advocate for public power policies at the state and federal levels. When Mother Nature strikes, public power districts coordinate and work together by sharing personnel, equipment, and material to respond to outages and restore power more quickly.
     Our public power districts are regulated by the Nebraska Power Review Board, an independent agency formed by the Legislature in 1963. One of the functions of the Power Review Board is to administer the certification of all retail service areas and operating agreements between electric utilities. These agreements establish the geographic areas in which any one utility may serve. However, there are occasions when a customer may be better served by a neighboring utility due to the location of existing power lines. The neighboring utilities must apply, and the Power Review Board must approve, for any transfer of the right to serve. By working together, the neighboring public power districts eliminate infrastructure duplication and ensure costs remain low for all customers.
     Perhaps the most important tenet of public power is local control and accountability. District directors are responsive to the needs of the community and are held accountable by voters living within the service territory. As customer-owners themselves, directors are equally subject to the decisions made by the board of directors. The legacy of Nebraska’s public power forefathers is still alive today as your community leaders continue their commitment of Nebraskans working for Nebraska.