(The Associated Press circulated the following story on July 7.)
OMAHA, Neb. — The rail line work that has curtailed coal shipments from Wyoming has not affected power output from Nebraska electric utilities.
“It hasn’t caused us a problem in terms of our ability to generate electricity,” Mike Jones, a spokesman for Omaha Public Power District, said Thursday. “It is something we’ve been monitoring.
“We usually do keep 45-50 days’ reserves on hand at our coal plants in case there’s a problem,” he said.
OPPD has two coal-fired plants among its power generators to serve more than 300,000 customers in 13 southeast Nebraska counties.
The utility burned 5 million tons of coal last year, Jones said.
Derailments on May 14 and 15 damaged a rail line from the Southern Powder River Basin in Wyoming.
The line is shared by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and Omaha-based Union Pacific.
The two railroads agreed last week to perform extra work for long-term stability on the line, a Union Pacific news release said, so the line load has been reduced until the work is completed in late November.
UP spokesman Mark Davis said Thursday that the work is on schedule and that there has been no change in plans.
The work has cut Union Pacific’s deliveries about 12 percent, the company said.
That’s posed no problem yet for the city of Grand Island, which has a municipal service and its own coal-fired generating station.
“We’re getting our full train,” said city utility director Gary Mader.
“We don’t have a problem right now,” station superintendent Dave Kuhlman said. “We have roughly a forty-day reserve.”
The plant burns about 430,000 tons of coal a year from the Wyoming supplies.
The utility serves Grand Island and adjacent rural areas — about 23,000 metered customers, Mader said.
A spokeswoman for Nebraska Public Power District, which serves all or parts of 91 of Nebraska’s 93 counties, said the shipment problem has been a minor one.
“We have seen fewer trains and are monitoring the situation,” Jeanne Schieffer said. “But the reduction has not been enough to impact our operation.”