By Rick Nelson

    I always find it refreshing to start a new year. This year, there is a promise of new things to come both within the Nebraska Rural Electric Association, Nebraska Magazine, and within the electric industry in Nebraska.
    The Nebraska Rural Electric Association looks forward to making changes to the way we communicate with rural Nebraskans. We find it a privilege to be able to send this magazine to you and so many people in the state and beyond. We often think however that we could be doing so much more. We think there are ways to communicate with so many more people, just by including them in our social media presence and making the magazine and all of its content available using multiple channels.
    Like many other organizations, we are fighting an uphill battle with paper shortages and price increases that continues to exert cost increases. I know I will never get tired of feeling the paper of the magazine in my hands while I read the stories, but some want to see it in different ways. I am excited about what could be happening in the future with how the Nebraska Magazine is presented to you the reader, but still, realize that most of us want to feel the paper.
    Now, I will turn my attention to the public power electric industry. The electric industry in general across the United States has spent 100 years just churning away in the background. Mostly going unnoticed and building a system that is the largest mechanical system by far in the world. In Nebraska, public power has always been there to make sure that electricity is reliable and provided to you at the least cost model possible.
    Every public power district and electric cooperative across the state has its own set of challenges. That is why local control is so important in rural Nebraska. Some power districts have a lot of irrigation, some have a lot of industry, and some just have a lot of miles to cover. All of those have different customers and different needs. But there is one thing we can all agree upon and that is our system of public power is the only way that the citizens of Nebraska have reliable and cost-effective electricity.
    In today’s very public world of electricity, many people think there is a better way to generate electricity and distribute it to you, the end consumer. Nebraska as a state has some of the lowest-cost, most reliable electricity in the United States, and yet that is not enough.
    We, as public power, spend an enormous amount of time in our public power role analyzing technology, studying new processes, and working on solutions that make sense. There is not a public power district or electric cooperative in Nebraska that does not understand that every dollar we spend is a dollar our customers give to us.
    Will the public power system look different in the next 100 years because of the shift in priorities related to the future generation and how to distribute that electricity? You bet it will. But it will be a shift that happens over time and a shift that makes sense for Nebraska. Each one of us is public power. Let’s not forget that.