For the first time in recent history, Nebraska Public Power District has been one of Site Selection Magazine’s Top 20 Utilities in Economic Development. The Top Utilities are evaluated by Site Selection Magazine, a leading publication in corporate expansion and area development, based on corporate end-user project investment and affiliated job creation in these utilities’ territories from the prior year.
“The elite Top 20 we named this year earned the honor amid a field of around 3,300 electric utilities across the country, including around 900 cooperatives,” says Managing Editor Adam Bruns of the rankings Site Selection has published since 1999. “Like the power they generate, their robust economic development teams and programs are well distributed throughout the country. And just as their generation and distribution portfolios turn toward renewables and smart technologies, these utilities’ economic developers are helping their communities pursue sustainable growth by cultivating the flow of smart capital and talent.”
“I’m excited for NPPD and Nebraska as a whole to be recognized for the growth and development we are experiencing,” said NPPD Economic Development Manager Nicole Sedlacek, CEcD. “This ranking is the result of combining our economic development team’s hard work with the outstanding service, low cost and reliable energy, and innovative rate products we provide all across the district.”
A few of the projects in NPPD’s territory that that helped make NPPD’s case to be in the Top 20 include Compute North’s expansion in Kearney (NPPD Retail), Nelnet in Columbus (Loup), and Green Plains Ethanol Central City expansion (Southern PPD).
Site Selection also welcomed questionnaire responses about the utilities’ website tools and data; innovative programs and incentives for business (including energy efficiency and renewable energy programs); and the utility’s own job-creating infrastructure and facility investment trends. One example share was NPPD’s Site readiness Assistance Program, which provides grants to help fund due diligence items to help get sites “shovel-ready” for potential development. This program has granted over $200,000 to 18 different sites in 4 years, including the Bradford Business Park in Norfolk where FieldWise, served by NPPD Retail, expanded their headquarters.