Omaha, Nebraska – The Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) has been actively encouraging its customers to conserve energy during the recent cold spell, and their efforts are showing positive results. In a proactive step to manage energy usage during this period of extreme cold, OPPD made a significant move this past Sunday.
A crucial action taken by OPPD was sending out a robocall to its customers. The message urged them to lower their thermostats by 2-to-4 degrees and to refrain from using major appliances during peak hours. These peak hours are identified as 7-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m., times when energy usage typically surges.
OPPD’s initiative appears to be successful. Jodi Baker, a media specialist with OPPD, confirmed the effectiveness of this request. “We have seen a decrease in usage across all of our customer classes,” Baker said. She expressed gratitude towards the customers for their cooperation: “I don’t have an exact figure right now, but I can tell you that we are really heartened and really grateful to our customers for everybody pitching in.”
This isn’t the first time OPPD has had to ask its customers to conserve energy due to cold weather. A similar situation occurred in February 2021 when temperatures plunged to about 23 degrees below zero. During that period, OPPD had to implement “controlled curtailments,” resulting in planned power outages to manage the energy demand. These outages lasted approximately one hour each.
Fortunately, as of now, OPPD does not anticipate any planned outages for the period of January 15-21, despite expectations of dangerously low temperatures again.
The call for energy conservation extends beyond residential customers. Business owners are also being encouraged to reduce their energy usage. Baker emphasized the voluntary nature of this request: “We’re in contact with our business customers as well as our industrial commercial customers and our residential customers alike asking everybody to cut back if they can. But of course, this is voluntary, so we’re not forcing anybody, we’re not mandating that anybody conserve energy right now.”
