Omaha Public Power District
Omaha and thirteen surrounding counties in southeastern Nebraska. A public power district with an elected board of directors, serving the largest city in the state.
- Type
- Municipal
- Accounts
- 400K
What they credit you
Avoided cost, carried forward as dollars
Set by state ruleNet excess generation is credited at the utility’s avoided cost of electricity supply, as monetary credits carried forward against subsequent bills, for systems up to 25 kW.
- Month to month
- Monetary credits carried forward indefinitely against later bills.
Set by undefined · checked 2026-09-05 · source
Battery backup is mandatory
in OPPD territory.
OPPD does not credit the power you send back at the rate it charges you to take it.
That does not make solar a bad idea in OPPD territory. It changes what you should build. When exports are worth a fraction of retail the credit stops being the return, and the job becomes using more of your own production inside the house, which usually means a larger array than a one for one utility would need.
Sizing is where that gets decided, so ask about it directly. Nebraska caps net metering eligibility at 25 kW and credits exports at avoided cost, so the design question is how much of your own production you can use rather than how much roof you have. OPPD sets its own limits. Ask OPPD what it allows before you accept that a bigger system is off the table.
A battery then does two separate jobs. It moves daytime production into the evening so you use it instead of selling it, and it keeps the house running when the grid goes down. That second job is not a bonus. Panels on their own shut off in an outage, by design, so a roof full of them powers nothing during a storm. That is the part we will not refer around.
So we treat it as a requirement, not an upgrade. We will not refer you for a panels-only system in OPPD territory, and you should be skeptical of anyone who quotes you one without raising storage first.
Our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement
What your installer should be telling you
Ask for the current avoided cost figure in writing, and ask when the board next reviews it.
OPPD is investor owned, so Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 70-2001 to 70-2004 applies and these terms are set by the state rather than by a board that can revise them. That is the strongest position a homeowner can be in on net metering.
Applying to OPPD
What OPPD itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.
- Every utility in Nebraska is publicly owned
- The only state in the country with no investor owned electric utility. Your provider is a public power district, a municipal system or a cooperative, and its board is accountable to customers or to voters.
- The statute credits avoided cost
- Net excess generation is credited at a rate equal to the local distribution utility’s avoided cost of electricity supply during the billing period.
- Credits are dollars, and they carry forward
- The statute provides that monetary credits are carried forward from billing period to billing period and credited against retail bills in subsequent periods. There is no annual wipe.
- 25 kilowatts is the eligibility threshold
- Above it you are outside the statutory net metering arrangement and into whatever your utility offers instead. For a house it is rarely binding.
- You can attend the meeting
- Because the rate setter is a public board, the export rate is decided at a meeting you may attend and, in most districts, vote in. That is a genuinely different situation from a Commission docket.
From OPPD’s published guidelines · checked 2026-09-05 · source
OPPD net metering questions
- Does OPPD offer one for one net metering?
- No. Net excess generation is credited at the utility’s avoided cost of electricity supply, as monetary credits carried forward against subsequent bills, for systems up to 25 kW.
- What does OPPD pay for power sent back to the grid?
- Avoided cost, carried forward as dollars. Monetary credits carried forward indefinitely against later bills.
- Do I need a battery with OPPD?
- Yes, and we treat it as mandatory. Because OPPD does not credit exports one for one, the return has to come from using your own production rather than selling it, which after dark means storage and usually a larger array than a one for one utility would need. The other half is backup: panels alone shut off in an outage, so a battery is what keeps the house running in a storm. We do not refer panels-only systems in OPPD territory. This is our referral policy, not a legal or utility requirement.
- How do I find my OPPD bill?
- Sign in at oppd.com. Open My Account, then Billing. Open the latest bill and save the PDF. Or screenshot the summary page. If you cannot get to it, a rough guess at your average monthly amount is enough to start.
- What is the catch with OPPD?
- Ask for the current avoided cost figure in writing, and ask when the board next reviews it.
Installers serving OPPD customers
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