It has been a very busy last couple of months here at Niobrara Valley Electric (NVE). Irrigation went deep into September this year due to our dry conditions; harvest was also fast and furious for the same reasons. Now that the summer load has fallen off, we are busy doing our yearly planned maintenance projects along with determining how many new irrigation services we will be able to take on for the 2025 season. As of today, we have 160 irrigation services on a list waiting to be served. We are projecting around 40 of those being able to be served in 2025 with hopefully the balance being able to come on in 2026-2027. To do this, we will have to build a new substation to meet the needs of these customers. We are in the process of securing land, materials, and contractors to help us with this project. We are projecting this to be online by the spring of 2026 if we don’t run into any issues with material and contracts. The preliminary price tag for building a new substation comes in around the 2.5 to 3-million-dollar range, which is staggering but necessary in meeting the needs of our members..
