FAQs

Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) is planning to connect its Cass County Balancing Station near Plattsmouth to its Nebraska City Station by building a new, approximately 38-mile extra-high-voltage transmission line. OPPD expects to announce the route for the new transmission line in December 2026 and plans to energize the line by December 2030.  

We partner with NPPD to serve this part of Nebraska – both entities have transmission and generation in southeast Nebraska. It truly takes a regional effort to deliver energy to customers because electrons don’t recognize state, local or even utility boundaries. They simply flow on the grid to the benefit of the entire region. In this case, we are charged with building the line because it will largely be placed within our physical service territory, even though some communities in the area are served by NPPD and other utilities.

We appreciate your concerns and understand how much is happening in your area. The Cass to Nebraska City Transmission Project is an investment in infrastructure that benefits reliability in Cass County – and our entire service territory. OPPD is making reliability investments in several communities, including Omaha’s urban core, Papillion and the broader Sarpy County, Northwest Omaha and more. The transmission system interconnects all areas of the OPPD system, therefore an investment in one community benefits all as we make our entire system stronger, replacing old infrastructure and hardening the system with new.

This line helps support reliability in the area by giving OPPD another option for moving power along north-south pathways, creating more resiliency when our lines are impacted by storms and weather. It helps us move the power we create at Cass County and Nebraska City Station to support customer growth and reliability across our service territory. We’ll also have the opportunity during this project to replace an aging eight-mile wooden transmission line nearing the end of its useful life, making that section of our system more resilient to weather.

The line is a priority project for the Southwest Power Pool, the regional transmission organization that OPPD is a member of, whose responsibility is to provide its member organizations with reliable, cost-effective access to electricity markets by coordinating regional grid operations, ensuring system reliability, and enabling efficient transmission planning and resource integration. It is a required effort that benefits reliability and affordability for all OPPD customers and the region.  

We will be working with landowners as we begin planning the route.  

Funding for this project will come from OPPD’s existing capital expenditure budget, allowing us to pay for it over time to mitigate rate impacts on the public. As a Southwest Power Pool-mandated project, much of the cost will be recouped from SPP over time.

OPPD uses a routing, siting and public involvement (RSPI) process to determine the placement of rebuilt and new transmission lines. OPPD’s promise to the public is to keep them informed, listen to and acknowledge their concerns, and work toward the best possible route for the public, the environment, and cost. 

OPPD will work directly with landowners along the route to gather additional information for the detailed design and alignment of the transmission line, and will explain the easement-acquisition process, access needs, and what to expect during construction. 

Trees and power lines are not compatible. OPPD will remove trees within the transmission easement and trees in danger of falling within 15 feet of the power line. Every effort will be made to limit the impacts on trees and vegetation, but some trees and brush must be cleared to prepare for construction and to enable reliable operation of the transmission lines.