In 2015, Platte River Power Authority stayed steadfast to its mission of providing safe, reliable, environmentally responsible, and competitively priced energy and services to our member owners. With the help and support of our board of directors, the commitment of our management team, and our dedicated and engaged employees, Platte River delivered another strong year of performance excellence.

Our flagship coal-fired generation plant, Rawhide, set a new operational excellence record of 393 days of continuous operation, beating the previous mark of 292 days. Late last year, we also completed a massive seven-week maintenance outage at the plant. Work on the outage had been in planning for nearly two years and involved about 125 employees and 300 contractors. Almost 50,000 hours were worked by Platte River employees during the outage. Our commitment to safety was evident when the work was completed and we recorded no employee or contractor injuries and had only one first aid incident.

Resource management will always be at the core of what we do, and is an essential part of our strategic planning process. At an August work session, our Board unanimously agreed to an over-arching direction statement for resource management – Platte River Power Authority employs an adaptive strategy to cost-effectively maintain reliability, manage risks, and ensure regulatory compliance. This frames and focuses staff as we look into the mid and long term and study innovative technologies to create smart energy systems.

The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), the designated compliance enforcement authority for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), performed an audit of Platte River’s compliance in February and found no violations and no areas of concern. We adhere to 75 NERC standards, which include 605 requirements and sub requirements.

Platte River’s financial position remained stable in 2015 with net income of $6.8 million exceeding the strategic financial plan target; however this was $3.1 million below budget. Revenues were the main driver of the overall lower than budgeted net income, primarily due to unfavorable surplus sales market conditions.

Platte River management approved a Security Policy and Impact Statement that creates a common language between management, employees, and functional groups regarding Platte River’s security posture. The policy uses risk based metrics to assess security readiness for the protection of our cyber systems and facilities.

We strive to provide exceptional customer service to our member owners and our Efficiency Works program is an excellent example. This joint energy efficiency program implemented through our four municipalities, continues to make an impact for customers, utilities, and Platte River. Last year’s results reduced annual electricity consumption by about 15.5 million kilowatt-hours, which equates to the annual energy use of about 1,800 homes. The combined yearly electric bills of participating customers will decrease by about $1 million. In the years to come, we will continue to employ technological innovation and sustainability efforts to provide the most economical forms of energy.

Our focus on stakeholder collaboration and communication was manifested in our ongoing engagement with city councils, citizen boards, customer groups, and community members to communicate on topics such as engineering and operations, energy efficiency, the Clean Power Plan, and resource planning.

Our dedicated employees make our plans, initiatives, and projects a reality. They have tremendous breadth and depth in the industry, and a constant focus on creating value for our member owners. We thank them for what they do every day.

Although predicting the future remains an imperfect science, we believe our strategic initiatives and related processes will continue to help shape the energy future of the communities we serve. We look forward to another year serving our energy customers.

Sincerely,