Grant Schulte joined OPPD as a content generalist in 2022, bringing his experience as a former Associated Press reporter who covered the Nebraska Legislature and state politics. In this interview with BlairToday, he discusses power infrastructure, storm preparedness, and OPPD’s commitment to Blair residents.
BlairToday: Since the 1997 storm left Blair vulnerable and July 2024’s windstorm caused widespread outages, how have you strengthened the main transmission lines serving Blair from Omaha?
Grant Schulte: OPPD routinely inspects and upgrades transmission lines throughout our service territory, including the Blair area. Over the years, we’ve expanded our transmission infrastructure to reduce congestion and fortify the local grid against storms. This is also necessary due to the dramatic load growth (demand for electricity) that we’ve seen in recent years.
In the Blair area specifically, one of our contracted tree crews is working right now to clear vegetation and trees away from power lines. This helps improve reliability because many of our outages are caused by fallen trees and branches hitting power lines.
Additionally, right now we’re working on an underground cable replacement project south of Blair (in rural Kennard). Because those lines are buried in the ground, they’re much more reliable and resistant to storm-related outages.
Those are just a few examples. As mentioned, the work to strengthen our system is ongoing.
BlairToday: Blair’s elevation means different weather than Omaha. How do you monitor these microclimates to prepare crews?
Grant Schulte: We’re constantly monitoring the weather throughout our service territory via the National Weather Service and other reliable, local sources. If we see forecasts predicting severe or extreme weather, we’ll often hold extra line crews back at our service centers so they’re in position to respond quickly. We also advise members of our storm team, which coordinates OPPD’s response and communicates with customers, to be ready to respond at a moment’s notice. For some weather events, such as tornadoes, it’s very difficult to predict what areas will be affected, but we do our best to deliver resources where they’re needed as efficiently as possible.
BlairToday: What’s your current protocol for communicating outage estimates to Blair residents? How can they stay informed?
Grant Schulte: OPPD provides outage restoration estimates and updates to all customers, including those in Blair, through a variety of sources. One is our outage-reporting website, stormandoutage.com, which features a live outage map and a county-by-county breakdown of outages. For mid-size and larger outages, we also post blog updates on that website with our best understanding of what has happened and estimated restoration times.
Additionally, for larger outages, we post regular updates on our social media pages and share information with local news outlets. Our Customer Service Team also reaches out to affected customers during major events.
BlairToday: How do OPPD’s mutual aid agreements help Blair, given our location between Omaha and rural areas?
Grant Schulte: OPPD has a service center in Blair with local field workers, many of whom live in that area. This allows us to respond to outages near Blair faster and more efficiently. When very large storms challenge the resources we have locally, we call on our mutual aid partners from Nebraska and other states to assist us. This was tremendously helpful during the July 31 storm that caused the largest power outage in our history. We’re happy to return the favor for our mutual aid partners when needed.
BlairToday: With extreme weather becoming more common, what upgrades are planned for Blair’s power infrastructure?
Grant Schulte: OPPD’s Distribution Planning Department has a project in progress that will provide additional distribution capacity to the Blair area. This additional capacity will support economic development in the area, allowing more electricity to flow efficiently to new and existing homes and businesses that need it. It will also provide more grid flexibility for both planned and emergent outages (such as storms, equipment failures, car accidents). This project has a tentative completion date of 2025.
BlairToday: How do you prioritize power restoration between Blair’s residential areas, businesses, and critical facilities like the hospital?
Grant Schulte: Generally, OPPD prioritizes critical infrastructure such as hospitals, government facilities and other buildings that serve important public health and safety needs. Beyond this, our practice during large and wide-scale outages has been to restore power to the largest number of customers, as quickly as possible.
Having said that, we value all of our customers and work hard to ensure that all customer classes receive reliable power and that outages are restored in a timely manner.
BlairToday: What should Blair residents do differently to prepare for winter storms compared to summer events like the July 2024 derecho?
Grant Schulte: We have a lot of resources available here: https://www.oppd.com/outages/storm-information-tips
For winter storms specifically, it’s helpful to have an outage plan. Keep blankets, flashlights, battery powered radios, medicines and other necessities nearby, in a place that’s easily accessible. Don’t hesitate to check in on neighbors if you think they might need help. Or, seek assistance from them if you need it. A portable generator can help in some circumstances, when used safely. Check stormandoutage.com for specific updates.
