Annual Report

LES’ 2022 Annual Report reflects the past year’s achievements and our commitment to the community. A year of exciting public engagement and innovation.

Coming out of a pandemic highlighted the resiliency of our community, employees and utility. The past year tested our strength in continuing to deliver clean, affordable energy to customer-owners while facing supply chain shortages, increases in material costs and unpredictable climate conditions that continued to push our system demand.

LES used these challenges as an opportunity to further demonstrate our innovation and industry collaboration. LES worked with public and private partners across the nation, from hosting a statewide training on cybersecurity best practices to developing new technology to help mitigate material shortages. LES employees proved their resiliency and welcomed these challenges with creativity and safety in mind.

LES completed its 2022 Integrated Resource Plan — the first IRP guided by our decarbonization goal. With public involvement, the action plan includes starting the process to develop a "utility-scale" solar resource, a battery storage pilot, expanding solar capability in LES’ community microgrid, and the continuation of LES’ Sustainable Energy Program, as well as new product offerings for customers.

For the first time in two years, LES could engage with customers again at exciting public events, including college career fairs, classroom visits, Energy Nights at Zoo Lights and more.

Scroll down to learn about the impact we made in our community, with our customers and in the industry in 2022.

LOCAL IMPACTS

Public power’s local impacts are undeniable and LES leads the way. From local control and environmental stewardship to low rates and community investment, LES positively impacts local people.

13.8 minutes

The average outage time per customer was 13.8 minutes, which is 88% lower than the five-year national average of 120 minutes.

$2.73 per day

LES launched its Value Campaign, relaying that typical residential customers paid an average of only $2.73 per day to power moments that matter. According to the LES regional rate comparison, which compares electric bills in a six-state region, the Lincoln area had the lowest average monthly residential bill.

$114,012 raised

LES reached 100% of its United Way Campaign goal, with employees raising a total of $114,012.

Lincoln STEM Ecosystem

LES hosted the second Lincoln STEM Ecosystem Reverse Pitch event, aimed to better connect the STEM organizations serving students to the businesses hiring in our community.

LES & LNK movie night

More than 300 attendees joined LES at the LNK Airport for a free public drive-in showing of "Back to the Future." Customers viewed more than 20 electric vehicles, learned about saving energy through LES’ Educational Interactive Tiny House, or EdITH, and engaged with LES lineworkers.

LES & Lincoln Public Schools

LES and Lincoln Public Schools launched the first year of a program to help motivate students in science and engineering. The curriculum is part of the sixth grade Design Thinking Classes in all 12 LPS middle schools.

Public meeting held on budget & rates

LES hosted a public meeting to review its budget and rates in detail. Approved by the LES Administrative Board and Lincoln City Council, the 2023 budget and rates included a 4.8% systemwide rate adjustment and a new Large Light & Power time-of-use rate.

SUSTAINABLE IMPACTS

In pursuit of our goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from generation production by 2040, LES continues to make conscious and considerate choices to achieve a cleaner energy future.

$1.3 million

LES distributed Sustainable Energy Program funds to incent about 2,200 residential, commercial and industrial energy-efficiency projects. These combined projects reduced the projected peak summer demand by a net of 5.6 megawatts and about 4,800 megawatt-hours annually.

Solar rooftop

LES substantially completed the construction on the Reel & Transformer building at the LES Operations Center. This 36,840-square-foot building will store distribution transformers, cable reels and other large material items. It features 144 kilowatts_DC of solar generation on the roof.

LES Peak Rewards

More than 1,200 additional customers enrolled their smart thermostats in LES Peak Rewards. This demand response program uses smart thermostats to reduce the electrical demand on the system during peak times. Since its launch in 2017, the program has 3,000 customers and 3,200 thermostats enrolled, representing 4 megawatts of controllable load.

Integrated Resource Plan

LES’ 2022 Integrated Resource Plan process allowed the utility, along with its customers, to assess the future electric needs and a plan to meet those future needs.

Low-Carbon Resources Initiative

Throughout the year, the LES Administrative Board put in a significant amount of time learning from industry experts, including Neva Espinoza, vice president, Electric Power Research Institute, who provided an overview of the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative.

UTILITY IMPACTS

LES is improving how we serve the needs of a growing customer base and workforce. Significant strides were taken in 2022 to make LES a safer, more secure and more inclusive place to work.

Community employer

In LES' ongoing journey to foster a diverse and inclusive company, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion employee resource group continued to offer employees monthly educational sessions with guest speakers from the community.

Cyber and grid security

LES conducted a grid security exercise to help improve security of the North American grid. In addition, four cross-divisional cybersecurity tabletop exercises were completed.

Cyber Operations Center

LES completed its Cyber Operations Center, or CYOC, the next step in LES’ Cyber Security program. This dedicated, isolated command center allows administrators and analysts to conduct investigations using security tools with heightened confidentiality. The team also completed its workforce realignment, moving all operations work tasks under a new CYOC supervisor to create a more cohesive response capability.

Career fairs and more

Staff participated in career fairs and university networking events, provided tours and presentations to high school and college students, and hosted job shadowing opportunities to further enhance recruitment efforts. Additionally, LES attended community events including Star City Pride and the Autumn Festival with the Asian Community Center to strengthen partnerships with local groups.

Security Operations Center

LES developed and implemented its Security Operations Center in 2022, which provides a 24/7 resource for monitoring our sites and responding quickly to emergencies.

Power your purpose

Working at LES is more than just having a job — it’s about serving your community alongside the local people who keep the lights on, taking pride in the work you do and challenging yourself to do more. Open positions

INTEGRATED RESOURCE PLAN COMPLETED

LES completed its Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP. The 2022 study was LES’ first IRP guided by our decarbonization goal, seeking to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions from our generation portfolio by 2040. The IRP is an important decision-making tool for exploring potential future outcomes when making resource-planning choices.

Throughout the IRP process, LES provided multiple opportunities for public input and interaction over different platforms. These included three public meetings and two workshops encompassing the span of the entire process, as well as distribution of both the draft and final versions of this report.

The final action plan released includes supply-side (i.e., generation) and demand-side (i.e., energy efficiency and demand response) resources solutions. First, LES plans to construct and operate a utility-scale solar resource located in or around the LES service area. Other steps include a battery storage pilot, community microgrid solar expansion and LES Sustainable Energy Program expansion. LES will also plan and offer time-of-use rates for its large commercial and industrial customers.

View the 2022 Integrated Resource Plan

LES PARTNERS WITH MILITARY IN CYBER TATANKA

LES participated in Cyber Tatanka — the first-ever joint cyber exercise for Nebraska. During this two-week collaborative effort held at Nebraska Innovation Campus, military and civilian entities simulated real-world cyberattack scenarios to reinforce cyber incident response best practices.

Participants included the Nebraska National Guard (Army and Air), Nebraska Public Power District, Lincoln Electric System, Union Bank & Trust, state and county government cyber teams, the Army of the Czech Republic, Ukrainian Armed Forces, Texas National Guard and others.

Over two weeks, participants received innovative readiness training and live-action operational exercises known as situational training exercises. A total of 6,480 training hours were achieved, including 1,191 hours of hands-on training in a simulated environment.

This joint effort allowed public and private entities the opportunity to see how each would react to a cyber event and better understand the constraints of critical infrastructure and businesses in a cyber event and how to keep operating while addressing an attack. The event also helped build partnerships for sharing capabilities and information.

MUTUAL AID

When large-scale events cause entire public power communities to lose electricity, LES will regularly answer the call to help restore and repair the system, allowing communities to rebound quickly.

In October 2022, LES provided mutual aid support in Florida after Hurricane Ian. Three crews comprised of 20 LES employees went to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, for one week to help restore power to the communities impacted by the Category 4 storm. At the peak of the hurricane, 91% of New Smyrna Beach Utilities' 30,000 customers were out of power.

Mutual aid resources helped restore power to priority feeders and other critical facilities within the first 24 hours following the hurricane. By the third day following the storm, 97% of affected customers had their power restored.

LES employees consistently rise to the challenge when asked for help by peers in the American Public Power Association’s mutual aid network. The network — comprised of more than 2,000 utilities — enables coordination among public power utilities and local, state and federal agencies to respond quickly during moments of crisis. The utility offered a hand restoring power in Houma, Louisiana, in the wake of Hurricane Ida in 2021.

2022 highlights

LES’ Customer Care Department answered 122,132 calls, handled 26,638 requests and served 20,999 walk-in customers who visited the Walter A. Canney Service Center business lobby.

The 4th annual Zoo Lights Powered by LES drew about 55,000 attendees. LES hosted Energy Nights where employee volunteers engaged with the public on energy-saving tips and LES programs. To help ensure customers struggling financially were able to enjoy the event, LES donated 100 tickets through the Community Action Partnership of Lancaster and Saunders Counties.

LES launched its Solar Trade Ally Network, comprised of 11 Lincoln-area solar businesses at the time, to help ensure customers and contractors are provided accurate and consistent information regarding LES rates, projected future increases and other utility-related information used to make informed decisions about net metering.

LES collaborated with local nonprofits to provide energy-efficiency upgrades for 20 income-qualifying households. LES provided $75,000 which was combined with about $120,000 of state weatherization funds to replace aged air conditioners and refrigerators and improve sealing and insulation, resulting in projected annual energy savings of more than 1,000 kilowatt-hours per household and annual bill savings of almost $90.

LES served an average of 147,843 retail customers: 130,074 residential customers and 17,769 commercial/industrial customers.

LES provided educational opportunities through community partnerships with 20 organizations, including the Lincoln STEM Ecosystem, Lincoln Children’s Museum, Lincoln Children’s Zoo, Lincoln Public Schools, The Career Academy and others.

LES coordinated 124 residential and commercial net-metering solar projects, which accounted for more than 1.25 megawatts in newly installed capacity. With these new projects, customers have a total of 3 MW of customer-owned renewable generation. The LES Administrative Board passed a resolution extending the capacity payment and rate structure incentives for Tier 2 projects from 3 MW to 4 MW.

For the 17th consecutive year, LES earned Tree Line USA designation through the Arbor Day Foundation, a program that recognizes best practices in utility arboriculture.

The American Public Power Association recognized LES with the Award of Excellence in Public Power Communications for the Value Campaign and the Sue Kelly Community Service Award.

LES powers the community with a balanced array of resources. The utility’s nameplate capacity is made up of 1/3 natural gas, 1/3 coal and 1/3 renewables.

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