Photo by: Courtesy.
Dawson
Public Power District opens for business in its new headquarters
Monday. The building provides DPPD more space for vehicle storage and
maintenance and room to expand for the next 65 years.
By HARRY G. PERKINS
Hub Regional Correspondent, September 8, 2009; Kearney HUB on line at http://www.kearneyhub.com
LEXINGTON - In 1943, Dawson Public Power District served 1,530
meters over 840 miles of power lines and employed 12 people.
Families in much of rural central Nebraska did not have
electricity.
When Dawson Public Power moves into its new headquarters
Saturday, the company will be providing electricity to 23,455
meters spread over 5,773 miles of lines. It employs 80 people,
including 20 people at facilities north of Kearney and at Ravenna,
Sumner, Gothenburg and North Platte. Its service area covers 5,500
square miles that include 14,000 homes, farms and ranches, 2,000
businesses and 5,500 irrigation wells.
"The district understands that future demands for electricity
will grow. With that demand will also be the demand for improved
power quality and reliability," District Manager Bob Heinz
said.
"The new headquarters is just a building. What happens inside is
more important. The coming years will see great improvements. We
have built for the next 65 years."
The new headquarters cost $11.6 million. About 2 percent of
Dawson customers' bills will go to pay for the building, Heinz
said. "If you have a monthly bill of $100, $1.95 of that bill will
be used to meet our bond requirements."
The new headquarters building is at the corner of U.S. Highway
283 and Road 433, commonly called the Smithfield Road, about a mile
south of the Lexington interchange on Interstate 80.
Dawson Power employees visited other power companies that have
recently built new facilities. "We asked them what they would have
done differently, what they would change. This was very useful in
our planning," Heinz said.
Site preparation began in 2006 on the 30-acre site. Construction
started two years ago.
The building contains almost 71,000 square feet. Almost half of
that is for an indoor truck barn that provides more space for
vehicle storage and maintenance. The building will house all the
district's materials and equipment and includes a drive-up window
where bills can be paid.
The old building at 300 S. Washington St. in Lexington was built
in 1943 and has 30,000 square feet with 7,400 square feet for
vehicle storage. There is an off-site facility. The old building
will serve customers until 5 p.m. Friday.
The new building uses geothermal heating and cooling through the
use of 132 wells on its premises at depths of 200 feet.
Heinz said the building includes a smart grid. "The district has
an extensive mapping system in place that tells us where piece of
equipment is connected to our grid. The district needs intelligent
instruments on the line that report things back such as low voltage
or breaker operations.
"That upgraded system begins at the customer's meter and pushes
data back to the district office where specific alerts will let us
know where work is needed," he said. "Manual and tedious line
patrol will be replaced with intelligent automation that lets us do
a better job of preventing outages rather than respond after a
customer calls."
He customers have two contacts with Dawson Power, when they get
their bill and when they have an outage.
"Dawson will have constant contact with their meter when the
smart grid is in place," he said.
Heinz said the new building provides quick access to I-80 and
highways north and south so the district can go in any direction
quickly in an emergency.
OPENS MONDAY
Dawson Public Power District's new facility at 75191 Road 433, one
mile south of the Lexington interchange on Interstate 80, will open
for business Monday. Regular office hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 5
p.m. Monday through Friday.
During the move, Dawson PPD asks that faxes be redirected to its
Kearney office at 308-236-9848. The district's phone numbers and
mailing address will remain the same. Outage and emergency calls
will be handled as usual during the move.
An open house and formal dedication will be Oct. 10.
