OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Nearly 1,600 Omaha Public Power District customers lost power last Thursday, but many couldn’t access outage information when they needed it most due to app and website failures.
OPPD’s current mobile app displays a message saying “Coming soon… MyOPPD App” directing customers to use the website instead. The utility acknowledged receiving reports of customers having difficulties reporting power outages.
“People rely on it; that it could be a matter of life and death and we take that very seriously,” said Jodi Baker, OPPD media specialist.
Baker said OPPD believes it has resolved most of the technology issues customers experienced during the recent outage.
WINTER PREPAREDNESS
Christopher Angland, OPPD’s director of electric grid operations, said the utility has made significant infrastructure improvements for the upcoming winter season.
“This year going into the 25-26 winter season, we have two additional generation plants that have come on this year. That’s over 600 megawatts of capacity,” Angland said.
The additional capacity will help manage increased power demand during winter months, according to Angland.
OPPD has also implemented a new Advanced Metering Infrastructure system that can detect outages before customers report them.
“That will greatly increase our speed of not only knowing about outages but being able to respond to them,” Angland said.
TECHNOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS
Baker said the new version of the mobile app is expected to be completed by January.
She emphasized that the website remains the most reliable way to access information, particularly with the newest version of the outage map.
“We know the responsibility that we have to bring power back to our customers, and we absolutely work as hard as we can to do that,” Baker said.
Angland expressed confidence in OPPD’s winter preparations.
“I’m confident OPPD has taken the steps they need to, to make sure our system is ready and reliable,” he said.
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