(1) Before any electric generation facilities, any energy storage resources, or any transmission lines or related facilities carrying more than seven hundred volts are constructed or acquired by any supplier, an application, filed with the board and containing such information as the board shall prescribe, shall be approved by the board, except that such approval shall not be required (a) for the construction or acquisition of a transmission line extension or related facilities within a supplier's own service area or for the construction or acquisition of a line not exceeding one-half mile outside its own service area when all owners of electric lines located within one-half mile of the extension consent thereto in writing and such consents are filed with the board, (b) for any generation facility when the board finds that (i) such facility is being constructed or acquired to replace a generating plant owned by an individual municipality or registered group of municipalities with a capacity not greater than that of the plant being replaced, (ii) such facility will generate less than twenty-five thousand kilowatts of electric energy at rated capacity, and (iii) the applicant will not use the plant or transmission capacity to supply wholesale power to customers outside the applicant's existing retail service area or chartered territory, (c) for acquisition of transmission lines or related facilities, within the state, carrying one hundred fifteen thousand volts or less, if the current owner of the transmission lines or related facilities notifies the board of the lines or facilities involved in the transaction and the parties to the transaction, or (d) for the construction of a qualified facility as defined in section 70-2002.

(2)(a) Before any electric supplier commences construction of or acquires an electric generation facility, energy storage resource, or transmission lines or related facilities carrying more than seven hundred volts that will be or are located within a ten-mile radius of a military installation, the owner of such facility, resource, transmission lines, or related facilities shall provide written notice certifying to the board that such facility, resource, or facilities contain no electronic-related equipment or electronic-related components manufactured by any foreign adversary.

(b) Any electric supplier that supplies, produces, stores, or distributes electricity within the state for sale at retail is exempt from subdivision (a) of this subsection if it is in compliance with the critical infrastructure protection requirements issued by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. To receive such exemption, the electric supplier shall submit written notice to the board certifying that it is in such compliance. The electric supplier shall also submit written notice to the board at any time such supplier is no longer in such compliance.

(3)(a) Before any electric supplier that is not exempt from subdivision (2)(a) of this section commences construction of or acquires an electric generation facility or transmission lines or related facilities carrying more than seven hundred volts that will be or are located within a ten-mile radius of a military installation, the electric supplier shall, following consultation with such supplier's vendors, submit a one-time written notice to the board certifying that such facility or facilities continually contain no electronic-related equipment or electronic-related components manufactured by any foreign adversary.

(b) The electric supplier shall also submit written notice to the board at any time such facility or facilities are no longer in compliance with the certification provided under subdivision (a) of this subsection.

(4) Notwithstanding subsections (2) and (3) of this section, an electric supplier required to provide certification under subsection (2) of this section may use electronic-related equipment or electronic-related components manufactured by a foreign adversary if the board preapproves the use of such equipment or components after finding that:

(a) There is no other reasonable option for procuring such equipment or components; and

(b) Not procuring or using such equipment or components would cause a greater harm to the state or residents of the state than the harm associated with the equipment or components.

(5) Before any private electric supplier commences construction or acquires an energy storage resource or related facilities, the owners of such resource or proposed resource shall file an application with the board that contains the information prescribed by the board and shall obtain approval of such application by the board. Such application shall include evidence that demonstrates to the board that:

(a) The private electric supplier has entered into or, prior to construction, will enter into a power purchase agreement or similar contractual agreement with a Nebraska public power district, public power and irrigation district, municipality, registered group of municipalities, electric cooperative, or electric membership association, any other governmental entity, or any combination thereof for purchase of all electric energy and electric capacity of such resource and will maintain a contractual relationship throughout the operational life of the resource;

(b) The private electric supplier has obtained written consent from each electric supplier that will have any part of the energy storage resource located in its chartered territory or retail service area and any other electric supplier that will be interconnected with the private electric supplier at a substation or switchyard that contains facilities rated at one hundred kilovolts or greater. Any written consent that is required under this subdivision shall be provided on a form that is prescribed by the board. Such written consent shall be filed with the board with the application; and

(c) The private electric supplier has entered into a joint transmission development agreement with the consumer-owned electric supplier that owns the transmission facilities that will interconnect with the energy storage resource. The agreement shall address construction, ownership, operation, and maintenance of such additions or upgrades to the transmission facilities as required for the energy storage resource. The joint transmission development agreement shall be negotiated and executed contemporaneously with the generator interconnection agreement or any other directive of the applicable regional transmission organization with jurisdiction over the addition or upgrade of transmission. The terms of such agreement shall be consistent with prudent electric utility practices for the interconnection of the energy storage resource, the consumer-owned electric supplier's reasonable transmission interconnection requirements, and applicable transmission design and construction standards. The consumer-owned electric supplier shall have the right to purchase and own transmission facilities as set forth in the joint transmission development agreement. The private electric supplier that owns the energy storage resource shall have the right to construct any necessary facility or improvement set forth in the joint transmission development agreement pursuant to the standards set forth in the agreement at the private electric supplier's cost.

(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the authority of or require an electric supplier that is operating in this state to enter into a joint agreement with a private electric supplier to develop, construct, or jointly own a generation facility or energy storage resource.

(7) Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize a private electric supplier to:

(b) Own or operate distribution facilities intended to provide retail electric service in this state; or

(8) An energy storage resource that is not an associated energy resource and has been approved by the board shall be exempt from the use of eminent domain by any electric supplier.

(9) A privately developed renewable energy generation facility is exempt from this section if it complies with section 70-1014.02.

Source:Laws 1963, c. 397, § 12, p. 1264; Laws 1979, LB 119, § 1; Laws 1981, LB 181, § 49; Laws 1984, LB 729, § 1; Laws 2009, LB436, § 6; Laws 2016, LB824, § 5; Laws 2024, LB1370, § 6; Laws 2025, LB43, § 2; Laws 2026, LB1010, § 9.
Effective Date: July 18, 2026

Annotations

The requirement that the hearing be held within thirty days unless a continuance has been requested by the applicant is directory, not mandatory. Omaha P. P. Dist. v. Nebraska P. P. Project, 196 Neb. 477, 243 N.W.2d 770 (1976).

This section is not limited to retail suppliers of electricity. City of Auburn v. Eastern Nebraska Public Power Dist., 179 Neb. 439, 138 N.W.2d 629 (1965).