Current Comments
Energizing
South Central Nebraska
SOUTH CENTRAL PUBLIC POWER DISTRICT, NELSON, NEBRASKA
OBJECTIVE: To make electricity available at the lowest cost consistent with sound economy and good management.
Manager’s Column
By
Max Van Skiver
What DO WE Want?
I have always felt that members of a democracy will
get it “right” with regard to public policy once they
understand the facts.
During simpler times, with
smaller populations, it always seemed to work out.
Our large complex society has had hiccups for sure,
prohibition being one. Nevertheless, by and large,
things have always worked out in the end. I trust that
they will continue to.
So, what does that have to do with electric service?
National policy over the past several decades has
been to reduce the emission of pollutants into the air
and water from human activity. Every statistic I have
seen with regard to air and water quality on a national
basis shows significant improvement even though
U.S. population has increased by over 50% since
1970 and economic activity even more.
More recently, “we” decided that it would be in the
best interest of future generations if carbon dioxide
emissions were reduced. Because carbon dioxide is
necessary to support life on earth, its regulation has
proved controversial.
August, 2016
As we learned in grade school, plants use carbon
dioxide and sunlight to produce oxygen for animals
(and us) to breathe and animals (and us), in turn,
produce carbon dioxide that plants need. Of course,
the complete carbon dioxide/oxygen cycle is far too
complex for us to discuss here AND ever-inventive
humans have developed many mechanisms in
addition to respiration to produce carbon dioxide.
Suffice it to say, the policy of the United States (and
many other nations) is to reduce the levels of carbon
dioxide added to the atmosphere.
Recently, the U.S. has provided very significant
financial support for the construction of NEW power
resources that DO NOT emit carbon oxide.
Sometimes, when we make changes, we experience
unintended consequences. The owners of 14 nuclear
power reactors in the United States, totaling
11,752,000 kW of capacity have announced plans to
prematurely retire their reactors during the past 3 or 4
years.
Here in Nebraska, the Omaha Public Power District
(OPPD) recently announced plans to shut down its
Fort Calhoun nuclear power station by the end of
2016. Fort Calhoun is rated 479,000 kW.
According to information provided in the Omaha
World-Herald, between 1973 and 2012, Fort Calhoun
provided more than 34% of the electricity used by
OPPD’s consumers. A recent OPPD plan for 2018
predicted that 1/3 of the electricity produced by OPPD
would come from the Fort Calhoun plant, making 2/3
of OPPD’s electricity production carbon-free.
www.southcentralppd.com
Page 1
Why the sudden change? The OPPD announcement
noted economic pressures.
FORT CALHOUN NUCLEAR STATION
After World War II, the U.S. made a significant effort
to develop nuclear powered generation for use by
both investor-owned and public power utilities. The
Federal Government heavily subsidized those initial
efforts much like it is subsidizing renewable resources
today.
EARLY NUCLEAR POWER HISTORY
I would assume that most Nebraska
citizens are aware that NPPD and OPPD
operate nuclear power plants. I doubt
that very many are aware that Nebraska also housed
a functional experimental power reactor.
I understand that the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC) had at least 10 experimental reactor designs
for power generation under development during the
1950’s. The AEC’s goal was to find and develop the
best technologies for fission-powered electrical
generation stations.
One of those experimental
reactors was installed near Hallam, Nebraska.
The Hallam Nuclear Power Facility, jointly operated by
the AEC and the Consumers Public Power District,
was rated to produce 75,000 kW of electricity. Hallam
Nuclear Power Facility had peak power production
roughly equivalent to that of the modest sized coalfired Hastings Utilities Whelan Energy Center Unit 1,
rated 77,000 kW and placed in service in 1981.
The nuclear part of Hallam was a Sodium cooled,
graphite moderated reactor with a thermal capacity of
256,000 kW, implying roughly 30% efficiency in converting heat produced by the reactor into electricity.
Construction of the Hallam nuclear power plant began
on January 1, 1959 and was completed late in 1962.
The Hallam Nuclear Power Facility was connected to
the electrical grid in September of 1963 and began
commercial operation on November 1, 1963.
Unfortunately, the design selected for the Hallam
plant was flawed and the AEC ordered the plant shut
down in 1964. Permanent shutdown occurred on
September 1, 1964. By 1969, decommissioning and
entombment were complete.
The U.S. Department of Energy continues to monitor
the site of the Hallam reactor to verify that the
entombed remains pose no risk to the environment.
Page 2
Photo courtesy of OPPD
Omaha Public Power District’s Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station
OPPD’s 479,000 kW Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station,
north of Omaha near the communities of Fort Calhoun
and Blair on the Missouri River, was the second
nuclear power plant built in Nebraska.
Ground
breaking took place on February 9, 1968. The plant’s
first sustained nuclear reaction took place on August
5, 1973.
A few years ago, OPPD received a 20-year extension
of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station’s original 40-year
operating license. The plant was licensed to operate
until August of 2033.
COOPER NUCLEAR STATION
The Cooper Nuclear Station, near Nemaha and
Brownsville on the Missouri River, will soon be the
only operating nuclear powered generating plant
in the State of Nebraska. Cooper Nuclear began
commercial operation during July of 1974.
The Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) operates
the Cooper Nuclear Station. The plant is rated at
810,000 kW. Late in 2010, NPPD secured a 20-year
license extension, permitting the plant to operate
through 2034.
The Cooper Nuclear Station was the top-rated nuclear
power plant in the United States during 2013 when
ranked by capacity factor (the amount of power
produced during a year relative to the theoretical
amount that could have been produced), generating
6,804,000,000 kWh of electricity.
NPPD’s Cooper Nuclear Station was also recently
recognized by the Institute of Nuclear Power
Operations as one of the nation’s top-performing
nuclear power plants.
www.southcentralppd.com
August, 2016
WHY WAS NUCLEAR POWER DEVELOPED
The amount of energy available in a very small
amount of nuclear fuel is incredible.
In terms of
energy content, complete fission of ONE pound of
Uranium-235 will produce as much energy as complete combustion of 2 to 3 MILLION pounds of coal.
So, put yourself in the position of a utility providing
electricity to a large U.S. city during the 1960’s and
70’s. Electrical usage is doubling about every 10
years and you need to build a power plant. Your
choices are coal that requires about 4,500 tons of coal
per day, oil that requires 20,000 barrels of oil per day,
or this new nuclear power technology that requires
about 3 pounds of processed uranium per day AND
does not emit any smoke.
Everything else being
equal, which would you chose?
It turned out that not everything was equal. A nuclear
plant would take longer and cost more to build, but
cost much less to operate than other steam power
plants. In fact, the fuel cost for nuclear power plants
was so low during that era, that some in the electric
industry half-jokingly suggested that nuclear power
would soon be “too cheap to meter”.
As inflation spiked late in the 1970’s, the length of
time that it took to build a nuclear plant became a
serious concern. In some cases, interest paid on
money borrowed during construction approached the
actual capital investment necessary to build the plant.
The go-go 60’s and 70’s ended with a crash early in
the 1980’s when the Federal Reserve spiked interest
rates to kill inflation. The demand for electricity
collapsed. Given the long lead times required to build
any kind of large power plant, but especially nuclear
power plants, we went from scrambling to build
enough power plant capacity to serve growing loads
to having too much power production capacity.
Planning was stopped on numerous nuclear plants
and many partially built plants were mothballed in
some cases or just walked away from in others. The
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), for example,
suspended construction of its two Watts Bar nuclear
plants near Spring City, Tennessee that it had begun
building during 1973.
A few years later, construction of Watts Bar Unit 1
resumed. TVA’s Watts Bar Unit 1 went into service
during May of 1996. Construction of Unit 2 was 80%
complete when suspended. In 2007, the TVA Board
of Directors approved completion of Unit 2 at an
August, 2016
estimated cost of about $2.5B. Construction of Unit 2
was substantially complete late in 2015 and the plant
is expected to be producing electricity at rated power
yet this year.
SO, WHAT HAS CHANGED?
Actually, quite a bit has changed. Utilities have
always selected generating plants to meet the
collective needs of the consumers they served with
consideration for local resources. The hydroelectric
plant at Niagara Falls was a natural. Areas with
“steam-based” industries naturally chose coal as the
fuel for their power generators.
Developing
Hydropower along the Platte in conjunction with
surface irrigation was also a natural. Many small
towns in Nebraska burned oil to power their
generators if a hydro resource was not available.
Desire for improved reliability and lower costs drove
the evolution of transmission lines to tie resources
together. Consolidation of small generators under
one operator led to the economic need for larger,
more efficient generators.
Once a critical mass of customer load was reached
AND adequate transmission was available, it made
sense for utilities to build power plants to meet
specific needs. Utilities used their knowledge of the
collective load pattern of their consumers to determine
exactly what mix of power plants to build.
Economies of scale meant that very large power
plants, while expensive to build, could deliver the
lowest cost electricity.
These plants are called
base-load plants. Nuclear power plants, because they
can run up to 2 years between refueling, are natural
base-load plants. “Peaking-plants” represent the other
end of the generating plant spectrum. Peaking-plants
are relatively inexpensive to build, but produce very
expensive electricity. Peaking-plants typically run only
a few hours to a few weeks a year.
Federal pressure has driven the development of
wholesale electricity markets. This would seem to be
a good thing for both utilities and consumers, but
there are some issues. In general, transmission
systems are not always robust enough to allow the
free flow of the least expensive electricity to the areas
of highest demand within the market and the markets
are not mature.
A great deal of money is being spent across the
country to improve transmission, and we will all get to
pay for it. My hope is that this expense does not
www.southcentralppd.com
Page 3
eat up too much of the savings created by developing
the electricity markets.
of terrorism requires a skilled military-style defensive
squad on site around the clock.
Today’s electricity markets value all electricity
resources the same. The “market” does not care
where electricity comes from, only that it is the
cheapest resource available during the instant that it
is needed. There is not enough recognition of the
characteristics of the resources available. This will
eventually get fixed, but probably not before it causes
a big outage or two somewhere in the U.S.
I have little doubt that single nuclear power plants
operating today employ 8 to 10 times the people that
they
employed when first put into service 40 years
ago or so.
Market flaws and the new resources coming online
have resulted in considerable price volatility. Negative pricing is occurring with increasing frequency. A
Texas utility has even offered “free electricity at night”
– in what environment would this make sense? Price
volatility is bad for a resource like nuclear power that
cannot shut down when prices are too low to support
its costs. Ironically, the cost of power from existing
nuclear power plants is not that much different from
the unsubsidized cost of many of the renewables
being installed today.
Nuclear power will never be “too cheap to meter”.
Over time, the plants have been burdened by new
and changing requirements. For decades, a fee was
paid to the Federal government on every kWh
generated to cover the cost to disposing of spent
nuclear fuel. Although the fee was paid, the Federal
government has never accepted possession of the
spent fuel. Reactor owners have had to store every
pound of spent fuel on site at considerable expense.
This issue is much more complex then described by
my short narrative here. I do not claim to have anything approaching complete knowledge of the nuclear
industry. However, I believe that “we”, as a society,
are doing ourselves, our children, and our
grandchildren a disservice by prematurely retiring
serviceable carbon-free nuclear power resources.
NEBRASKA STATE FAIR
August 26 - September 5
HUSKER HARVEST DAYS
September 13 - 15
Nebraska Public Power District, the Nebraska
Rural Electric Association, and the Nebraska
Power Association work together to host booths
at the State Fair and Husker Harvest Days.
The booths will have interesting displays and
information on the power industry as well as
information on our EnergyWise programs.
I know of no undertaking that exercises more care
with regard to safe operation than does nuclear
power and rightfully so. We can never allow an
accidental release of harmful amounts of radioactivity.
Therefore, it takes an “army” of people to manage
the operation of a nuclear plant. In addition, the threat
Nebraska State Fair Live Line Demonstrations & Booth
CURRENT COMMENTS
Newsletter of the
SOUTH CENTRAL
PUBLIC POWER DISTRICT
Nelson, Nebraska
Board of Directors
John Greer—————————-President
Larry Mikkelsen —————Vice President
David Hamburger———--———Secretary
James Hoffman——————-—Treasurer
Neal Carpenter—-———————Director
David Woods————————-—Director
Dean Zalman————————-—Director
John Hodge——————————Attorney
Max VanSkiver———-—General Manager
NOTICE
The regular meeting of the board of directors of South Central
Public Power District is held the third Tuesday of each month at 9
a.m. at the district’s office in Nelson, Nebraska.
Page 4
Nelson Office Hours
(8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday)
402-225-2351 or 1-800-557-5254
There will also be “Live Line Demonstrations” at
both events. Linemen from across the state will
demonstrate the power of electricity and the
tools and equipment required to handle it safely.
For Billing Questions, please call:
(M-F, 8am-5pm)
402-225-2351 or 1-800-557-5254
For Power Outages, please call:
(Any time of the day or night)
402-225-2351 or 1-800-557-5254
Newsletter Editor: Royce Schott
Live Line Demonstrations
www.southcentralppd.com
August, 2016