Electric utilities event a real Power Fest
Published in: Columbus Telegram (Columbus, NE)
Date: 10/6/2006
By: Julie Blum
Safety demonstrations and rides in bucket trucks were just a couple of the activities at Power Fest.
The three local electric utilities sponsored the annual event held at Lake North on Thursday to celebrate Public Power Week. All of the utilities — Loup Power District, Cornhusker Public Power District and Nebraska Public Power District — were represented at the event, which attracted hundreds of adults and children who were treated to a free meal. Nebraska has the distinction of being the lone state with public power, a fact Judy Trautwein, information and marketing director at Cornhusker, pointed out. “We are the only state in the United States with 100 percent public power. We are locally owned,” she said, adding that Nebraskans have the benefit of electing their own representatives to boards of local utilities. Locally owned power also results in lower rates compared to the national averages.
The power rates in Nebraska are 20 percent less than what others pay in other states, said Karen Schlautman, customer service director at Cornhusker. Schlautman and David Bell, development/marketing director at Loup, were dishing out information and answering questions about public power while directing trolley rides around Lake North. Also on hand at the event were Louie the Lightning Bug, energy bingo, student-built electric Power Drive vehicles and an energy wheel activity. Prizes were given away by each utility. Loup Power has 17,800 electrical accounts in its service area, covering approximately 2,028 square miles in and around Columbus. Cornhusker Power provides electricity to Columbus east industrial area and rural portions of Platte, Colfax, Boone, Nance, Greeley and Wheeler counties within a 2,219 square-mile service area. NPPD helps serve an estimated 800,000 Nebraskans with retail or wholesale electric power and energy-related products and services.