Time of Use Rate Program Pilot
Update October 15, 2026
At the October OPPD Board of Directors meeting, the Board approved a rate schedule for OPPD’s Time of Use Rate Program Pilot that will provide customers who opt in to the pilot reduced rates for using electricity during off-peak hours. The board considered public feedback received over the past month prior to voting.
The utility industry is currently undergoing a great deal of change and is exploring new and better ways to deliver affordable, reliable and environmentally sensitive energy services to you, our customer-owners.
From time to time, OPPD’s Board of Directors will call upon customers to provide feedback on specific topics, including those that have to do with OPPD rates. In September 2026, OPPD's Board of Directors discussed a new Time of Use (TOU) Pilot that will provide customers who opt into the pilot reduced rates for electricity use during off-peak hours from June to September 2027, while increasing per-kWh rates during the peak hours of 3-7 p.m. weekdays.
Prior to an October 15 rate action Board vote, the Board welcomes a public comment period to gather feedback.
Time of Use Rate Program Pilot
Please see this video from the September 2026 OPPD All Committee Meeting for more information.
OPPD is taking public comment on a new Time of Use Pilot that will provide customers who opt into the pilot reduced rates for electricity use during off-peak hours from June to September 2027, while increasing per-kWh rates during the peak hours of 3-7 p.m. weekdays. This benefits customers by providing them with a tool to reduce energy costs and ultimately benefits OPPD by reducing peak load, which directly translates into the amount of capacity the company must build or maintain for service.
The pilot would run during the summer months only, with the new rate going live on March 1. Customers won’t see bill impacts until the June billing cycle. Rates are preliminary until 2027 COP is complete.
Rates during the Summer Pilot:
- Non-pilot Residential Rate 110 customers will pay 11.937 cents/kWh, all day, every day.
- TOU pilot customers would pay 32.22 cents/kWh between 3-7 p.m. (a 170% increase versus the current rate) to encourage energy usage during off-peak times. The 3-7 p.m. on-peak price window does not apply to weekends or federal holidays, so on those days you don’t need to worry about when you are using energy.
- TOU pilot customers would then benefit by paying 8.055 cents/kWh off-peak (a 33% decrease versus the current rate). Off-peak is any time outside of 3-7 p.m. from Monday through Friday and includes all hours of the weekends and federal holidays
Rates the remainder of the year:
- Residential Rate 110 and TOU customers would each pay the same amount in the non-summer months, currently 9.503 cents/kWh all day, every day.
On-peak hours (3-7 p.m.) only represent 12% of all summer hours. By avoiding peak usage, customers are can actually experience a decrease in rates the other 88% of hours.
The goal is to enroll at least 300 new customers out of a population of 8,500 customers who have modern meters as part of our modern meter soft launch. You can learn more about OPPD’s residential modern meter program here.
Although the new rate will go live on March 1, customers won’t see bill impacts until the June billing cycle.
Public Comments
We invite you to be part of the conversation. OPPD is accepting public comments on this rate action from September 15 – October 11. You may leave your feedback in the guestbook below.
Time of Use Rate Program Pilot
CLOSED: The public comment period has closed
-
Time of Use (TOU) Residential Rate Pilot Presentation at the September 2026 OPPD Board of Directors All Committees Meeting on 9/15/26
Re: Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) Comments on OPPD’s Proposed Time of Use Rate Program Pilot
Introduction
Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments in support of Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) proposed Time of Use (TOU) Rate Program Pilot.
The Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) is a member-based, nonprofit organization promoting energy efficiency to optimize energy generation, reduce consumption, create jobs and decrease carbon emissions in all Midwest communities. Our members include energy efficiency-related businesses, manufacturers, local governments, utilities, academic institutions, researchers and advocacy groups. MEEA engages in energy efficiency policy and programs in 13 Midwest states, including Nebraska, where 44 of our 170+ members are headquartered or operating.
Demand Side Management and TOU Rates
We appreciate the opportunity to highlight the benefits of rate-based demand-side management (DSM) through tools such as TOU rates. DSM tools will become even more important as energy demand continues to rise. Nebraska, like many Midwestern states, will need to find creative and effective solutions to this increased demand while preserving energy affordability. DSM includes traditional energy efficiency, like efficient appliances and building weatherization (home insulation and air sealing), in addition to demand response strategies, which focus on reducing energy use during times of peak demand when the grid is most strained. By reducing energy load at peak times, a utility can defer or delay the need to build additional generation and peaker plants, saving money for customers. When energy efficiency and demand solutions work together in tandem, they are at their most impactful.
Time of Use rates are a tried-and-true demand flexibility method, offering price signals to encourage customers to shift non-urgent energy use to low demand periods. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) outlines the benefits of demand flexibility in their 2024 report, The State of Demand Flexibility Programs and Rates. Throughout the report, LBNL outlines multiple successful demand flexibility programs that use TOU rates as a key tool. The report details benefits demand flexibility, including:
“Demand flexibility can lower carbon emissions and energy costs by shedding load during peak hours, or by shifting that load into off-peak hours. These reductions in peak demand reduce the need for carbon intensive and expensive gas generators and can mitigate the impacts of building and transportation electrification (Goldenberg, Dyson, and Masters 2018; Hale, Stoll, and Mai 2016). Demand flexibility can also reduce the curtailment of renewable generation by shifting load into hours of solar and wind generation (Stoll, Buechler, and Hale 2017; Goldenberg, Dyson, and Masters 2018). Additionally, demand flexibility can reduce the costs of electric distribution systems by deferring or avoiding distribution system upgrades through non-wires alternatives.” (LBNL 2024, citations in original).
TOU rates are especially impactful for customers with the ability to shift large energy consumption activities, such as electric vehicle charging – which OPPD customers are increasingly adopting. TOU rates are also impactful for customers with additional sources of energy on-site, such as rooftop solar or battery energy storage systems. In these cases, customers can draw from their on-site resources during peak hours, relieving utility-wide demand constraints and local distribution strain. TOU rates also open a door to additional demand flexibility programs that may target specific neighborhoods where grid strain is high and defer more costly infrastructure upgrades, saving all OPPD customer-owners money.
Conclusion
This TOU pilot is a prime opportunity to begin using OPPD’s advanced metering infrastructure to benefit all customers. By offering TOU rates as an “opt-in” option, OPPD can build trust with customers and fine-tune what type of customer this rate structure works best for. Additionally, if this pilot goes well, OPPD can potentially implement other dynamic rate structures in the future. MEEA is excited to see OPPD dive into this next phase of demand-side management, and we look forward to collaborating in the future on additional expansion opportunities.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment. If you have any questions on these comments or would like to discuss energy efficiency policy further, please reach out to MEEA’s Nebraska state lead, Clara Stein, at cstein@mwalliance.org.
Sincerely,
Paige Knutsen
Executive Director, MEEA
These comments reflect the views of the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance – a Regional Energy Efficiency Organization – and not the organization’s members or individual entities represented on our board of directors.
I ran the numbers on our bill (flat) vs the proposed 32.22¢ peak (weekdays 3–7 pm) and 8.055¢ off-peak. Even charging our EV entirely in the evening/overnight outside peak (~200+ kWh/month), the pilot would still cost us more than today’s flat rate, the 170% peak premium outweighs the ~33% off-peak discount for a typical summer load shape. Our Nest data shows the AC often runs ~14 hours/day in July, so a large share of usage inevitably falls in the 3–7 pm window which we can't simply turn off. We tried that incentive program where OPPD pauses our thermostat during peak times and that was miserable every single time it was invoked.
What would work better and matches what many utilities already do is a deeper overnight / "super off-peak" discount (often ~11 pm–7 a.m.) so EV owners aren’t incentivized to plug in when they get home at 5pm and start charging in the middle of the night. The charging apps for the EVs support this because its so common with other power providers.
Georgia Power Overnight Advantage (2.3¢ per kWh), Ameren Illinois ChargeSmart (2¢ per kWh in the summer), and various plans are built around that strategy. I’d rather see OPPD prioritize a strong overnight EV rate than a pilot that raises bills even when we charge off-peak.
I support OPPD’s opt-in Time of Use pilot and appreciate the District experimenting with rate design as the electricity system changes.
Increasingly, the challenge is not simply how much electricity customers use, but when they use it. As solar, wind, storage, electric vehicles, and other technologies expand, there can be significant value in shifting flexible demand toward hours when electricity is plentiful and away from periods when the grid is constrained. Time-varying rates give customers a meaningful way to participate in that transition.
Interesting to learn that only 3% take on similar programs in other areas. I would certainly be interested since I'm ultra aware of usage and think it's great that it's an opt-in program so people don't have to participate if they don't want to. I am curious to see how it's adapted for net metering users. For most net metered customers, the rates don't matter much over the summer as they typically produce excess in the summer months. These are also the customers most likely to fully participate. Perhaps there's additional incentives they could have during the peak hours to produce more or consume less during those hours or send more stored energy back to the grid.
I don't think this is going to fly. You are talking about a 170% rate increase during the hottest time of the day when kids are getting home from shool and people are returning from work. Rather than penalize people for using power when the need it, why don't you offer a discount to promote use when they have the option to do so. Encourage EV charging and things like laundry, dishes, and thermostat changes to be started right before bed by offering a discount during the lowest usage periods of 9-6am. Even if I only charged our EV outside of the peak hours at a 30% discount, there is no way I am going to offset a 170% increase in our use during those peak hours. I would practically have to power down our house between 3-7pm to see any significant savings.
You feedback will be displayed here.