NEBRASKA POWER REVIEW BOARD
Minutes of the 876th Meeting
August 21, 2026
The 876th meeting of the Nebraska Power Review Board (Board or PRB) was held in the First Floor Hearing Room, Nebraska State Office Building, 301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, Nebraska. The meeting was called to order at 9:01 a.m. The roll was called and present were Chairman Hutchison, Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk, Mr. Austin, Mr. Grennan, and Mr. Liegl. The executive director stated that public notice for the meeting had been published in the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper on August 11, 2026. The meeting was available to the public online through Microsoft Teams. The login information was available on the Board’s website. The agenda on the Board’s website provided links to the agenda items with associated documents the Board will consider, as well as a link to the Nebraska Open Meetings Act. Executive Director Texel explained that if any member of the public watching the meeting online wanted to speak, they can click on the “raise your hand” icon. They would need to type their name, address and organization (if any) into the “chat.” Anyone wishing to comment on an item or ask a question could also type the comment or question in the chat function and the Board’s staff would read the question or comment to the Board. All background materials for the agenda items to be acted on were provided to all Board members prior to the meeting and a copy of the materials was in each Board member’s meeting notebook. The executive director announced that a copy of the Nebraska Open Meetings Act was on display on the south wall of the room, and another copy was available in a black three-ring binder on the table at the back of the room. A copy of all materials that the Board would consider was available for public inspection, as well as extra copies of the agenda.
The Board first considered the draft minutes from its June 26, 2026, public meeting. The minutes had been sent electronically to the Board members. The staff was not aware of any corrections needed, and no one contacted the Board regarding any changes. Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk moved to approve the minutes. Mr. Grennan seconded the motion. Voting on the motion: Chairman Hutchison – yes, Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk – yes, Mr. Austin – yes, Mr. Grennan – yes, and Mr. Liegl – yes. The motion carried 5-0.
The next item was acceptance of the expense reports for the months of June and July. In June there was $31,161.84 in personal services, $23,730.24 in operating expenses, and $(6,190.95) in travel expenses. The total June expenses were $48,701.13. The reason for the travel expenses being net positive was due to receipt of SPP reimbursement for Chairman Hutchison’s RSC travel expenses. June was the State’s fiscal year-end and the PRB ended 12.75% over budget. In July there was $34,645 in personal services, $23,071.17 in operating expenses, and $1,747.44 in travel expenses. The total July expenses were $59,463.61. July is the first month of the new fiscal year, which equates to approximately 8.3% of the fiscal year. The cashflow worksheet shows the PRB has used 8.82% of its cash fund. The three largest utilities (OPPD, NPPD and LES) paid their assessments in early July, although they were not required to pay until mid-August. The executive director thanked the utilities for working with the PRB to pay promptly. Mr. Liegl moved to accept the June and July expense reports. Mr. Grennan seconded the motion. Voting on the motion: Chairman Hutchison – yes, Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk – yes, Mr. Austin – yes, Mr. Grennan – yes, and Mr. Liegl – yes. The motion carried 5-0.
The next item on the agenda was a presentation of the 2026 Annual Load and Capability Report. The executive director stated that many years ago the Board designated the Nebraska Power Association (NPA) as the representative organization to
prepare this report, pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 70-1024. Jason Fortik, Vice President for Power Supply for the Lincoln Electric System and chair of the NPA’s Joint Planning Subcommittee, gave the presentation on the report. The report covers the utility load forecasts and generation resources available and needed to satisfy the forecasted loads in Nebraska over the next 20-year period on a statewide basis. The report includes information concerning generation units that are planned, committed, and studied in order to meet the State’s projected load growth. The report also covers ten additional items of information the Board requested to be included in the report that are not enumerated in Neb. Rev. Stat. 70-1025(3). The presentation indicated that overall Nebraska currently has excess generation capacity. The average peak demand growth rate for the State is projected to be 1.5% per year. In 2025 the projected growth rate was 1.7%. Mr. Fortik pointed out several edits and corrections that had been identified in the report and the PowerPoint. He said he could make the changes before submitting the final version of the report, if it is accepted. The changes are more clarifications or things like inaccurate dates and are not substantive. Chairman Hutchison thanked Mr. Fortik and the NPA subcommittee members for the work and stated that they done an excellent job meeting the criteria the Board asked them to include in the report and the detail they included to explain the material. Now anyone can pick up the report and get a better understanding of the issues involved by reading the report. In the past a person might have needed to have some background in the electric industry to be able to understand the data in the report. Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk moved to accept the 2026 Load and Capability Report with the edits to be made by the NPA Joint Planning Subcommittee, and delegate acceptance of the final version with the mentioned edits to the executive director. Mr. Liegl seconded the motion. Voting on the motion: Chairman Hutchison – yes, Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk – yes, Mr. Austin –yes, Mr. Grennan – yes , and Mr. Liegl– yes. The motion carried 5 – 0.
The Board took a recess at 11:08 a.m. The Board reconvened the meeting at 11:13 a.m. All members were again present.
The Board then considered a formal designation of notice method for the Power Review Board public meetings. Neb. Rev. Stat. section 84-1411(1)(a) deals with meetings of public bodies. In the 2026 legislative session the statute was amended by LB 596. The following language was added to the statute by LB 596 (new text is underlined): “Each public body shall give reasonable advance public notice of the time and place of each meeting by a method designated by each public body and recorded in its minutes.” The PRB has been using the Lincoln Journal Star for its public meeting notice for decades – prior to when Executive Director Texel was hired in 1998. Ms. Birkett (the Board’s paralegal) researched the Board’s minutes to see if there was a time when the Board may have officially designated the Journal-Star for the agency’s notices, but never found an official designation recorded in the minutes. To ensure the Board is in in compliance with the new statutory language Executive Director Texel recommended that the Board approve a motion to designate the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper as the agency’s method to provide advance public notice of its public meetings. Mr. Austin moved to designate that public notice of the Board’s meetings be placed in the Lincoln Journal Star and to publish it on the Board’s website. Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk seconded the motion. Voting on the motion: Chairman Hutchison – yes, Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk – yes, Mr. Austin – yes, Mr. Grennan – yes, and Mr. Liegl – yes. The motion carried 5-0.
The next item was to consider whether the Board would want to consider pursuing introduction of a bill to repeal the annual net-metering report. The net-metering report statute was enacted in 2009. When the Unicameral enacted this requirement, it required that on March 1 of each year each local distribution electric utility publish a report providing certain net metering information on the utility’s website and report it to the PRB. The report requires four items of information: 1) The total number of qualified facilities, 2) the total estimated rated generating capacity of qualified facilities, 3) the total estimated net kilowatt-hours received from customer-generators, and 4) the total estimated amount of energy produced by the customer-generators. The report’s purpose was to track the number of net metering facilities to determine whether net metering was accepted and working in Nebraska, and if the number of qualified net metering facilities increased over the years. The executive director told the Board that in the 2026 Legislative session several senators stated during committee hearings and floor debate that agencies should identify statutes within the agency’s jurisdiction that were no longer necessary or have outlived their usefulness. In addition to this, in Governor Pillen’s memo asking each agency to find cuts to reduce the budget by 5%, the memo states that agencies should “propose statutory changes that reduce regulatory burdens, non-critical agency duties, and programs with underperforming outcomes.” As a result, Executive Director Texel raised the idea of eliminating the annual report at the NPA Board of Directors meeting on July 15. The reaction by the utilities was positive. The out-of-pocket cost the PRB incurs to collect the data includes cost to print the postcards, pre-metering the postcards for return mail, and the cost to mail out the letter requesting the postcard to be returned would be somewhere in the range of $500 to $750. There is some minor additional expense for sending out additional letters when trying to obtain the data from those utilities who are past due. Staff time is not included in the out-of-pocket expenses. Executive Director Texel explained that he was asking the Board if it would want to authorize him to pursue introduction of a bill to repeal either the entire statute 70-2005, or at least the portion that requires the annual net metering report to be submitted to the PRB. Mr. Austin moved to approve the executive director to draft legislation to repeal Neb. Rev. Stat. section 70-2005 in its entirety, but if that appears not to be possible, to at least try to repeal the portion pertaining to the PRB. Mr. Liegl seconded the motion. Voting on the motion: Chairman Hutchison – yes, Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk – yes, Mr. Austin – yes, Mr. Grennan – yes, and Mr. Liegl – yes. The motion carried 5-0.
The next item on the agenda was to consider whether the Board will approve the travel expenses for Board members to attend the Northwestern Electricity Conference. The Board members received an invite to attend a conference titled “Northwestern Electricity Dialogue in the West’s Evolving Energy Landscape.” The conference will be in Park City, Utah, on December 3 and 4. The organizations sponsoring the conference offered to pay travel costs and lodging for Board members attending the conference. In this situation, the PRB will pay the initial travel costs and then be reimbursed by sponsors. Chairman Hutchison already contacted the organizers and they are fine with that procedure. By having the PRB pay for the expenses and then be reimbursed, the travel costs are not considered “gifts” to the Board members. That means the Board members would not have to report the travel expenses as a gift on their Accountability and Disclosure statements of financial interest forms. The out-of-pocket cost to the Board would be the per diems and meals. Mr. Austin moved to approve paying for the travel expenses for interested Board members to attend the Northwestern Electricity Conference. Mr. Liegl seconded the motion. Voting on the motion: Chairman Hutchison – yes, Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk – yes, Mr. Austin – yes, Mr. Grennan – yes, and Mr. Liegl – yes. The motion carried 5-0.
The next item on the agenda was the director’s report. The first item was an update on Southwest Power Pool activities. Chairman Hutchison stated that a quarterly meeting was held in St. Paul, Minnesota at the beginning of the month. There was discussion about the five sub-regions of the SPP footprint. North and South Dakota are the north sub-region, Nebraska is a sub-region, there is a central sub-region and then the south is in two sub-regions. Then the regions are divided into three deliverability areas. The two sub-regions in the south are one, the central is two and Nebraska and north is the third. Chairman Hutchison explained that he was the only RSC member to vote “no” to include Nebraska in the cost-sharing for the North sub-region deliverability area. The Nebraska utilities did express some concern about Nebraska being included in the north designation. The reason for this is concern about the shared cost allocations for lines that are built in the Dakotas, but Nebraska may not actually see a benefit from many or most of those lines.
Executive Director Texel then updated the Board on formal Complaint C-57. This is the show-cause hearing after which a majority of the Board ruled that Vecino Natural Bridge was supplying electricity to its tenants in the Muse Apartment complex in Omaha in violation of Neb. Rev. Stat. § 70-1011. Vecino filed an appeal of the decision with the Nebraska Court of Appeals. The Nebraska Attorney General’s office will be handling the appeal. Vecino’s brief was due on October 9, but it filed a motion for a one-month extension, which was granted. So Vecino’s brief is now due on November 9. The AG’s office told the executive director Vecino’s counsel had contacted them about a possible settlement. The motion for extension of briefing time also mentioned the desire to pursue settlement options. If there is a settlement, the Board would need to vote on whether to accept it. It will be placed on the agenda if that happens. However, settlement negotiations are confidential and will require the Board to discuss the issue it in closed session. The Attorney General’s office would send someone to the meeting to present any settlement offer to the Board.
The executive director gave an update on staff activities, which is something Chairman Hutchison has requested. Last month, the Board received three applications for distribution line extensions that are less than ½ mile in length. The Board is anticipating a generation application to be filed in the near future. The Board received three updates to PDREGF certifications that have an associated energy storage resource (ESR) with them. In the last couple days the staff received letters from the utilities with the service area rights to the locations where the PDREGFs are located questioning whether the certifications were properly given. The staff is working on how to address the issues involved. The Board asked the staff to put the checklists that were created to assist the staff when revieing applications on the Board’s website. The checklists were placed on the Board’s website. To access them click on the “Legal” tab on the homepage. The checklists will appear on the drop-down menu. The executive director added a disclaimer on the checklists stating that the checklist was created for internal use by the PRB staff, but is made available to the public for convenience purposes. Following the checklist does not ensure that an application will be approved or a Notice will be certified.
The executive director told the Board all but one assessments have been received. Rebeca Hallgren, the Board’s business manager, told the Board the assessment check was received that morning during the Board meeting. Unfortunately, it was not received or postmarked by the due date, but instead was two days late. That means the Board will have to collect interest on the payment. The amount of interest is set by statute. The executive director told the Board that he and Ms. Hallgren are in the process of preparing the Board’s biennial budget submission. It is due September 15.
Executive Director Texel noted that the next three meetings are September 18, October 16, and November 20, 2026.
Mr. Grennan moved to adjourn the meeting. Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk seconded the motion. Voting on the motion: Chairman Hutchison – yes, Vice Chairwoman Gottschalk – yes, Mr. Austin – yes, Mr. Grennan – yes, and Mr. Liegl – yes. The motion carried 5 – 0. The meeting was adjourned at 12:07 p.m.
Timothy J. Texel
Executive Director and General Counsel
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