Top Tier — Nebraska Battery Sales Reference

Omaha Public Power District · Omaha & Southeastern Nebraska

Sales reference for reps working OPPD territory. This is the deep reference — how to sell it up top, full utility detail below. Nebraska is the only 100% public-power state in America: no investor-owned utilities anywhere, every rate set by an elected local board, no state commission over any of it — and a state net-metering statute that decides the battery math before any utility gets a vote. That statute (LB 436, on the books since 2009) nets a solar customer's usage at full retail within each monthly billing period, with any month-end excess credited at avoided cost and cashed out annually. Here's what that means for a battery, told the way this company tells everything: monthly netting already smooths the daily solar mismatch — your midday surplus already cancels your evening usage inside the same bill — so a battery adds close to nothing to today's bill, and our proposals show it that way, on purpose. What we sell in Omaha is what's actually true in Omaha, and it's plenty: this utility just lived its largest outage event ever — the July 2024 windstorm put 220,545 OPPD customers in the dark — and the March 2025 blizzard that followed was its most destructive by damage, 106,000 out. Rates are climbing too: OPPD's own confirmed 2026 increase is 6.3 percent. Backup power in the state where back-to-back years rewrote the outage record books, position against a board-set rate curve, and the takeover of an orphaned system — that's the honest pitch, and in this market it doesn't need a single invented dollar.

What kind of market this is

OPPD is a monthly-netting-zero market by state statute: proposals show the with-battery bill essentially unchanged and say why — the statute's full-retail monthly netting already does the smoothing a battery would do — and the sale stands on the strongest resilience résumé in our book (220,545 out in July 2024; 106,000 in March 2025), a confirmed 6.3% 2026 rate increase, and the takeover, with the no-program truth told in full. Five defining facts:

1. The statute decides the math, and the math is ~$0 — said on purpose. Nebraska's net-metering law (Neb. Rev. Stat. §70-2001 through 70-2005, LB 436 of 2009) nets usage at full retail within each monthly billing period; month-end excess is credited at avoided cost — not retail — carried forward monthly and cashed out annually. Monthly netting already cancels the daily solar mismatch inside the bill, so a battery adds minimal bill-arbitrage value — and our proposals render the with-battery bill essentially unchanged, with the reason printed. The statute is silent on batteries: nothing prohibits one, and nothing pays one.
2. The avoided-cost tail is real but small — and its exact cents are being pinned. Only month-end excess (after the retail netting) earns the avoided-cost credit — OPPD implements it under Rate 483, and the exact ¢/kWh is being confirmed from OPPD's rate manual. Until it pins, the honest line is structural: excess earns a wholesale-class credit well below retail, which is one more reason right-sizing beats over-exporting — never a battery-savings claim.
3. The storm résumé is the pitch — and it's all documented, all OPPD's own. July 2024 windstorm: 220,545 customers out — the largest outage event in OPPD history. March 2025 blizzard: 106,000 out — the most destructive by damage. Behind them: the August 2020 derecho (~57,000) and the April 2024 EF-4 tornado through Elkhorn (10,158). Two record-setting events in back-to-back years, in the utility's own accounting. Grid-tied solar produced nothing through any of it.
4. The rate curve is board-set — and the next step is already confirmed. No PSC, no state rate regulation: OPPD's elected board sets rates, and the 2026 increase is confirmed at 6.3% — on top of a stack that already runs 11.937¢ summer energy + 0.521¢ fuel adjustment + a $30.00 monthly service charge (~$154.58 at 1,000 kWh summer). The trajectory beat is documented, current, and never converted into battery savings.
5. No programs for batteries, no VPP, no phantom money — the full list, unprompted. No VPP operates anywhere in Nebraska (Tesla, Enphase, SolarEdge, FranklinWH — none), no utility battery dispatch, no battery rebate. OPPD's $2,000 solar rebate is an installer-channel solar incentive (Trade Ally required) — never battery money, never in our savings stack; the Smart Thermostat program is thermostat-only demand response. Taxes told straight: no Nebraska solar credit, solar equipment is sales-taxable (no exemption), customer-generators get a statutory property-tax exemption, and the federal ITC expired 12/31/2025.

Your lead is the honesty itself, then the wind. "Nebraska's statute already nets your solar at full retail every month — a battery won't move this month's bill much, and our proposal shows you that on purpose" is the sentence that buys the room. Then the sentence that closes it: "two hundred twenty thousand OPPD customers lost power in one storm two summers ago, a hundred six thousand more in the blizzard the following March — and every solar roof in Omaha was off both times. The battery is the piece of the system built for the storms this utility now measures itself by."

Default configuration: backup-capable — the record books demand it.

• Backup-capable: $18,500 cash / $23,942 financed / ~$228/mo
• Self-consumption-only: $17,000 cash / $22,068 financed / ~$210/mo

Confirm pricing, configuration, and current rates in the tool before quoting — the avoided-cost credit is a being-pinned figure, and no rep ever invents its cents.

PART A — The Pitch (Problem → Solution → Urgency → Close)

The spine is multiple beats per section: customer headline + statement + rep layer (+ objection where noted). Beats marked (BACKUP ONLY) render only for backup config. The monthly-netting honesty governs every number.

The Problem

Your net metering is genuinely decent — and we'll be the ones to tell you exactly what it does and doesn't do. Nebraska law nets your solar at full retail inside every monthly bill: your midday surplus cancels your evening usage before the bill is even calculated. That's real value, and it's yours by statute. Here's the honest consequence: a battery shifting power inside the month can't improve on netting that already happens inside the month — it won't meaningfully reduce today's bill, and our proposal will show you that rather than pretend otherwise. What the netting doesn't do: pay retail for month-end excess (that earns a wholesale-class credit), protect a single light bulb in an outage, or hold back a board-set rate curve that just confirmed a six-point-three percent increase.

Rep layer: The statute-honesty opener — the register's defining move: the arrangement is CREDITED (monthly retail netting is genuinely decent), the ~$0 is stated by the rep BEFORE the screen renders it, and the three gaps (avoided-cost excess, outages, trajectory) are named as the battery's actual jobs. Statutory footing when asked: §70-2001 et seq., LB 436 (2009) — 25 kW cap, monthly retail netting, avoided-cost excess with annual cash-out. Objection — "So the battery doesn't save me money?" On today's bill, honestly, very little — and every competitor telling you otherwise is fighting the statute. The battery's jobs are the ones the statute can't do.

Your month-end excess earns wholesale, not retail. Whatever your system over-produces beyond a month's usage gets credited at avoided cost — the utility's wholesale-class rate, a fraction of the retail you pay — carried forward and cashed out once a year. The exact cents are being pinned from OPPD's rate manual, and we won't guess them.

Rep layer: The avoided-cost beat — precision + honesty: Rate 483 implements the statutory avoided-cost credit; exact ¢/kWh UNCONFIRMED (being pinned; tool carries any working figure, flagged). The honest use: right-sizing beats over-exporting — this is a design conversation, NEVER a battery-savings claim (monthly netting means a battery can't meaningfully rescue excess value either — don't imply it can).

Your system is orphaned. Whoever installed your solar is likely gone, merged, or unreachable — especially after so many installers folded when the federal tax credit expired at the end of 2025. If something goes wrong, there's no one accountable. You own the system and the risk.

Rep layer: Standard orphaned-system beat. Ask who installed it and whether they'd answer a service call.

Your inverter is on the clock. Your inverter is several years old. When it fails out of warranty, that's about $3,500 to $5,000 out of pocket — and your system produces nothing until it's replaced, typically 4 to 8 weeks.

Rep layer: Standard inverter beat. SolarEdge ~12-yr warranty, real failure 8–15 yrs; Enphase 25-yr, real issues 10–20.

(BACKUP ONLY) This utility rewrote its own outage record two summers ago — then broke the damage record the next March. The July 2024 windstorm put 220,545 OPPD customers in the dark — the largest outage event in OPPD's history. Eight months later the March 2025 blizzard cut power to 106,000 and became the most destructive storm, by damage, the utility has recorded. Before those: the 2020 derecho took out fifty-seven thousand, and the April 2024 EF-4 tore through Elkhorn. Grid-tied panels produce nothing in an outage. A battery keeps your critical systems running, and recharges from the sun through restoration.

Rep layer: Renders ONLY for backup config — THE beat in this market, and the strongest documented résumé in the book. Anchors (all OPPD-attributed, stated precisely): July 2024 windstorm — 220,545, largest ever; March 2025 blizzard — 106,000, most destructive by damage; Aug 2020 derecho — ~57,000; April 2024 Elkhorn EF-4 — 10,158. Two records in back-to-back years is the sentence — understate the rest and let the utility's own accounting work. Plains honesty: wind, ice, and tornado season all live here; restorations after the 2024 windstorm ran multi-day.

The Solution

A battery does the three jobs the statute can't — and we'll show you today's bill essentially unchanged, on purpose. Nebraska's netting already handles the bill; our proposal says so instead of inventing savings. What the battery adds: backup power in the territory that just set two outage records in two years; position against a board-set curve with a confirmed six-point-three percent step already scheduled; and one accountable company behind your whole system.

• Self-consumption: "Your netting covers the bill; the battery covers the curve — and keeps your generation working for you on the worst days."
• Backup: "All of that — and a house that runs while two hundred thousand neighbors wait for crews."

Monthly Cost Chart and Net Bill Breakdown render here — with the with-battery bill essentially unchanged and the monthly-netting explainer displayed.

Rep layer: THE core cure beat — monthly-netting-zero edition. The proposal RENDERS the ~unchanged bill + explainer; the rep owns it in words first ("you'll see almost no bill change on this page — here's why that's the honest version, and here's what you're actually buying"). The stack, in order: resilience (the record books carry it) + trajectory position (6.3% confirmed; board-set; scenarios as backdrop) + takeover. Zero invented arbitrage, ever — the statute zeroes it and we say so.

(BACKUP ONLY) It keeps your home running when the grid goes down. Powers your essentials — refrigerator, medical devices, connectivity, heat circuits in a blizzard, cooling in a July windstorm — through an outage, and recharges from solar daily for as long as restoration takes.

Rep layer: The resilience cure beat. Omaha honesty: the two record events span both seasons — summer wind and winter blizzard — so the sizing conversation covers heat AND cooling loads; multi-day restoration is the documented pattern, not a hypothetical.

We take it over. Top Tier becomes the single point of contact for your entire system — a new 10-year workmanship warranty, the 5-year Align Solar Protection contract ($0 deductible, non-transferable), and manufacturer warranty coordination.

Rep layer: Answers the orphaned-system problem. Transfers: workmanship with written consent; Align non-transferable; manufacturer per OEM terms.

Thousands you don't pay. The $11K+ Hidden Costs Avoided bundle — built into the takeover, not sold as extras.

Rep layer: Reframes total cost. "Your payment buys the battery plus warranty plus service plus inverter-replacement coverage — over $11K of value."

And whatever the board votes next, your stored power is yours. OPPD's rates are set by its own elected board — no state commission reviews them — and the next step is already public: six-point-three percent in 2026, on a bill that already runs about a hundred fifty-five dollars at typical usage. Storm costs from two record-setting years flow through that same process. Power you store and use yourself answers to none of it.

Rate Justification + Own vs Rent render here.

Rep layer: The independence beat — public-power edition: board-set rates (elected board, no PSC — structural fact, stated neutrally); 6.3% 2026 CONFIRMED (the rare trajectory number that isn't a projection); two record storm years imply recovery costs in the rate base (structural note, never a prediction of specific filings). 25-yr scenarios: conservative 3%, moderate 5%, aggressive 7% — backdrop, never battery savings.

Urgency

The honest clocks — the plains calendar, and nothing invented.

The storm clock. July 2024 came in the summer; March 2025 came in the winter — this territory's record books now span both seasons, which means there is no off-season. A battery in place before the next front is refrigeration, heat, and connectivity; one ordered after is a backorder behind two hundred thousand neighbors.

Rep layer: THE urgency — lived, documented, two-season. The back-to-back records make the preparedness case without a single forecast.

The rate clock — the honest version. Six-point-three percent is confirmed for 2026 by the board itself. That's not a countdown on your netting — it's the price of every kilowatt-hour you'll still buy, moving in one direction.

Rep layer: Trajectory urgency at its most honest — a confirmed board action, quoted as exactly that; never converted into battery-savings math.

What is NOT a clock: your netting. Nebraska's net-metering statute has no sunset, no successor docket, and no deadline — it's been the law since 2009, and nothing is filed against it. The statute even bars utilities from adding burdens beyond it. Anyone selling you a Nebraska net-metering deadline is importing another state's pitch.

Rep layer: The anti-manufacture rule, statute edition — the arrangement is statutory and stable; the 1% aggregate cap exists in the statute but is NOT pitched as urgency (no evidence it's near binding — inventing a cap-race would be manufacturing a clock). The honest structural note if asked: other states rewrote their rules; Nebraska's is a statute, which is harder to change than a tariff — stated as context, never as a guarantee.

The Close

1. Verify the utility, then credit + configuration. OPPD territory confirmed (Nebraska is a patchwork of districts and municipals — the bill says who serves the home). Then the credit check and backup vs self-consumption config.
2. Own the ~$0 in words before the screen shows it. "Nebraska's statute already nets you at full retail every month — this proposal shows today's bill essentially unchanged, on purpose, and everything on it is the part the statute can't do."
3. Customer reads and signs the service agreement. Walk the disclosures honestly — the monthly-netting mechanics, the avoided-cost excess (being pinned), the no-program list, the sales-tax truth, and the confirmed 6.3%.
4. Complete the Welcome Call. Finalizes the sale and sets expectations for installation.

Standing Rules (Do NOT Violate)

• ❌ NEVER coach reps to disqualify based on home tenure. Resale story is real — not "walk away."
• ❌ NEVER claim "all warranties transfer." Workmanship: with written consent. Align: non-transferable. Manufacturer: per OEM terms.
• ❌ NEVER fabricate inspection findings.
• ❌ NEVER quote a bill-reduction factor as a guarantee.
• ❌ NEVER quote a REP buyback rate as fixed/guaranteed — plan-dependent, confirm the customer's actual plan.
• ❌ 85+ confirmation call required. Customer confirms own finances, no POA, sound mind.
• ❌ Financing ends before age 91. 75 → 15-year max. 80 → 10-year max.
• ❌ Honest cancellation window. Overselling = free customer exit + $1K–$1.5K clawback.
• ❌ Certified before selling.

Go get the sale. A battery is a strong product — clean energy, independence, backup, long-term savings, and in Texas real VPP income. A customer who wants one for any honest reason is a good sale. We never walk away over price or low savings — that's the customer's call. Do right by the customer, protect the company, be honest.

PART B — The Deep Reference

1. Orientation

• Utility: Omaha Public Power District — publicly owned electric utility, elected board, serving Omaha and 13 southeastern Nebraska counties. Nebraska is 100% public power — no IOUs exist in the state; no PSC rate jurisdiction; each utility's board sets its own rates.
• Market type: MONTHLY-NETTING-ZERO by statute (batteryBillArbitrageZero) — full-retail netting within each billing period (Neb. Rev. Stat. §70-2001 et seq., LB 436/2009); month-end excess at avoided cost (Rate 483, ¢ being pinned), annual cash-out; battery today-bill impact ~$0, rendered and said on purpose; value = resilience (the record books) + trajectory position (6.3% confirmed) + takeover; no VPP/battery programs; statute has no sunset.
• Default config: backup-capable ($18,500 / $23,942 / ~$228); self-consumption ($17,000 / $22,068 / ~$210).

2. How the OPPD Bill Works

1. Consumption (confirmed July 2026): energy 11.937¢/kWh summer / 9.503¢ winter + 0.521¢ FPPA (fuel and purchased power adjustment) + $30.00 monthly service charge — about $154.58 at 1,000 kWh summer. The 2026 increase is confirmed at 6.3%.
2. Netting (the statute): usage and generation net at full retail within each monthly billing period — the meter math happens before the bill does.
3. Month-end excess: credited at avoided cost (wholesale-class, well below retail) under Rate 483 — carried forward monthly, cashed out annually. Exact ¢/kWh being pinned from OPPD's rate manual — never guessed aloud.
4. What this means for a battery, exactly: intra-month shifting can't beat netting that already happens intra-month — today-bill impact ~$0, rendered that way, said that way. The avoided-cost tail makes over-production a design question (right-size the array), not a battery-savings story.

Why this matters for the pitch: the ~$0 is the trust move — in a market where every competitor will invent arbitrage the statute zeroes out, the rep who says the true number first owns the appointment, and everything after it (the record storms, the confirmed 6.3%, the takeover) is bankable.

3. Net Metering in Nebraska — One Statute, No Clock

Everything below is pinned to the statute and OPPD's implementation.

• The statute: Neb. Rev. Stat. §70-2001 through 70-2005 (LB 436, 2009) — systems to 25 kW; monthly netting at full retail; excess at avoided cost, carried monthly, annual cash-out; a 1% aggregate-capacity provision exists in the statute (not pitched as urgency — no evidence it binds); utilities cannot impose additional burdens beyond the statute, though they may offer better terms.
• The implementation: OPPD nets on a single bidirectional meter (§70-2003); the avoided-cost credit lives in Rate 483 — cents being pinned.
• The battery truth: the statute is silent on batteries — nothing prohibits, nothing pays. Monthly netting already does the smoothing; no arbitrage story exists here, and we don't invent one.
• No clock: no sunset, no docket, no deadline — statutory since 2009, nothing filed. The anti-manufacture rule holds absolutely.
• The rep move: "Here's your arrangement, straight from the statute: Nebraska nets your solar at full retail inside every monthly bill — that's been the law since 2009, it has no expiration date, and it means a battery won't move this month's bill much. I'll show you that on the proposal instead of pretending otherwise. What I'm actually selling you is the three things the statute can't do: keep your house running through the next July 2024 — two hundred twenty thousand of your neighbors went dark in that one — hold position against a board that just confirmed six-point-three percent, and put one accountable company behind the whole system."
• See the "Net Metering & Grandfathering Status" section for the cited detail; the flag for OPPD is MONTHLY-NETTING-ZERO (statute-driven; ~$0 said first; resilience + trajectory + takeover; avoided-cost ¢ being pinned).

4. Rate Reality + The Honest Math

What drives the OPPD pitch (named, honest):

1. The record books. 220,545 in July 2024 — largest ever; 106,000 in March 2025 — most destructive by damage. Two records, two seasons, back-to-back years.
2. The ~$0, said first. The statute-honesty that no competitor in this market will match — and the credibility that carries everything after it.
3. The confirmed step. 6.3% in 2026, from the board itself — the rare trajectory number that isn't a projection.

Documented vs. speculation (say this right):

• ✅ "Nebraska nets your solar at full retail every month — state statute, since 2009, no expiration" (the arrangement)
• ✅ "A battery won't move this month's bill much — the netting already does that work; our proposal shows it" (the ~$0, owned)
• ✅ "Month-end excess earns a wholesale-class credit — the exact cents are being pinned, and I won't guess them" (avoided-cost honesty)
• ✅ "Two hundred twenty thousand five hundred forty-five customers out in July 2024 — OPPD's largest event ever; a hundred six thousand in the March 2025 blizzard — their most destructive by damage" (the record, precisely)
• ✅ "The board confirmed six-point-three percent for 2026" (the step)
• ✅ "No VPP operates in Nebraska, there's no battery rebate, and the two-thousand-dollar solar rebate is an installer-channel program — none of it is battery money" (the full list)
• ❌ Inventing bill-arbitrage savings the statute zeroes out (the cardinal sin here)
• ❌ Guessing the Rate 483 avoided-cost cents, or quoting any excess-credit figure the tool doesn't carry
• ❌ Pitching the 1% aggregate cap as a fill-up-fast deadline (no evidence it binds — manufactured urgency)
• ❌ Claiming the $2,000 solar rebate as battery money or putting it in the savings stack
• ❌ Promising a sales-tax exemption (solar equipment is taxable in Nebraska — priced honestly)
• ❌ Quoting the federal ITC (expired 12/31/2025)
• ❌ Borrowing OPPD's storm counts for any other Nebraska utility (they're OPPD's own)

5. Incentives & Programs

• Battery programs: none. No VPP operates anywhere in Nebraska (Tesla, Enphase, SolarEdge, FranklinWH — all verified absent); no utility battery dispatch; no battery rebate.
• OPPD's $2,000 solar rebate: an installer-channel solar incentive requiring a Trade Ally installer — a solar-side fact, never battery money, never in our savings stack; mentioned only for completeness.
• Smart Thermostat DR: $100 enrollment + $30/yr — thermostat-only demand response, never battery income.
• Taxes, honestly: no Nebraska solar tax credit; solar equipment is sales-taxable — no exemption, priced in; customer-generators hold a statutory property-tax exemption (duration detail being confirmed with the Department of Revenue); federal ITC expired 12/31/2025 — never quote 30%.
• The value is resilience + position + the takeover — statute-honest economics, stated as exactly that.

6. System Rescue Value — The System Takeover

This applies to any customer with existing solar — and it's identical across every Top Tier market. These are takeover facts, not TX-specific.

The Orphaned Solar Customer Problem. Many Texas solar customers installed during the 2019–2024 growth years and now face:

• An original installer that's gone out of business, been acquired, or stopped servicing residential (especially common after the federal tax credit expired Dec 2025)
• A 10-year workmanship warranty that's unenforceable (installer is gone)
• An inverter approaching or past typical failure windows
• No service relationship, and most companies refuse to service systems they didn't install

The Inverter Failure Reality. Inverters are the weakest link. Panels last 25–30 years; the inverter fails much sooner.

• SolarEdge string inverters: 8–15 years (12-yr standard warranty)
• Enphase microinverters: 10–20 years (25-yr warranty)
• Industry-wide: 70–90% of systems experience inverter failure within the panel lifespan
• When it fails on an orphaned system: production stops, bills jump to full retail, most providers won't quote it, out-of-pocket replacement is $3,500–5,000, and the customer is down 4–8 weeks.

What Top Tier's takeover provides (formalized through a Service Warranty Agreement with a brand-new 10-year Limited Workmanship and Roof Penetration Warranty):

• A new 10-year Top Tier workmanship warranty (regardless of system age)
• Manufacturer warranty claim handling (Top Tier chases the claim + labor, not the customer)
• Inverter replacement coverage when it fails within manufacturer warranty (customer pays nothing for the work)
• Single point of contact; monitoring setup help; performance verification at inspection

The $11K System Takeover Bundle (the exact 5-tile bundle on the proposal):

How to use it: "On top of the bill math, you're picking up over $11K of bundled services that aren't sold separately. If your inverter fails in year 12, the warranty handling alone is worth a few hundred; the replacement coordination saves $3–5K; the Align contract is $1,500 you'd otherwise pay. It adds up."

Align Solar Protection — the terms (get these right):

• 5-year term, $0 deductible, insurance-backed by American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida, non-transferable to subsequent owners.
• Covers: mechanical breakdown of existing PV (panels, inverters/optimizers, racking) — parts, labor, service calls.
• Does NOT cover: the new battery (own warranty), wear-and-tear, weather/hail, pre-existing conditions, roof issues.
• Age limits: panels/microinverters under 15 years; string/central inverters under 7 years. Not every system fully qualifies — disclose at inspection.
• It's ONE of three layers: (1) equipment manufacturer warranties, (2) Top Tier's 10-yr workmanship, (3) the 5-yr Align contract. Never call it "full coverage."
• NEVER say: "Everything's covered" / "never worry again" / "Align is your full coverage" / "you can extend beyond 5 years" / "Align transfers when you sell."

Quantifying the rescue value:

This is independent of bill savings — the rescue alone can be worth $4,000–7,500.

7. Outage Reality — Two Records in Two Years

Why outages happen here. The plains write a two-season threat calendar, and OPPD's own record books prove it:

• July 2024 windstorm: 220,545 customers out — the largest outage event in OPPD history, with multi-day restorations across the metro.
• March 2025 blizzard: 106,000 out — the most destructive storm by damage OPPD has recorded.
• August 2020 derecho: ~57,000 — the plains' signature straight-line wind event.
• April 2024 EF-4 tornado (Elkhorn): 10,158 — tornado alley's reminder, three months before the windstorm.

What a battery does — and the honest mechanism. Grid-tied solar shuts off automatically in an outage. A battery with backup keeps essential loads running — refrigerator, medical devices, connectivity, heat circuits in a blizzard, cooling in a July windstorm — and recharges from solar daily through restoration.

How to pitch it honestly: "This utility set its all-time outage record in July 2024 — two hundred twenty thousand customers dark — and broke its damage record in the blizzard eight months later. Every solar roof in Omaha was off through both. When the record books span both seasons, backup isn't an upgrade — it's the part of the system built for the storms your own utility now measures itself by."

8. Hidden Costs Avoided / What You Own vs What You Rent

• What you rent: board-set power with a confirmed 6.3% step coming, in the territory that just set outage records in consecutive years.
• What you own (with the battery): a house that runs through the next record-setter, position against every step the board votes, and generation that keeps working for you on the worst days.
• Hidden costs avoided: the $11K takeover bundle + every multi-day restoration's real costs — spoiled food, frozen pipes averted in March, hotel nights in July.

9. Battery Products

• Backup config (the point — two-season record territory): Tesla Powerwall 3 (13.5 kWh; Redline: $20,500), FranklinWH aPower 2 (15 kWh; Redline: $20,500). Not compatible with HDM.

• Self-consumption config: Enphase IQ 5P (10 kWh; Redline: $15,500 SC / $17,600 BU), SolarEdge Home Battery (9.7 kWh usable; Redline: $14,500 SC / $16,000 BU), SolarEdge Nexis (self-consumption only pending crew backup training; Redline: $15,500 SC).

• OPPD takeaway: no VPP routes hardware anywhere in Nebraska — selection is purely about backup depth for events the utility itself calls record-setting, said plainly. Under monthly netting the sizing conversation is resilience-driven, spanning summer cooling and winter heat. Confirm config in the tool.

• Financing terms vary by lender — price deals through the proposal tool.

10. Objection Handling

Universal objections (swap in OPPD figures) + OPPD-specific objections.

"So the battery won't lower my bill?" (OPPD-specific — THE register objection; the answer is the pitch)

"On today's bill, honestly, very little — and I'd rather show you that than hide it. Nebraska's statute nets your solar at full retail inside every monthly bill, which means the smoothing a battery would do is already happening in the meter math. Any company showing you battery bill-savings here is fighting a state statute, and the statute wins. So here's what you're actually buying, and it's the honest list: a house that runs through the next July 2024 — two hundred twenty thousand of your neighbors went dark in that one, and a hundred six thousand more in the blizzard eight months later; position against a board that just confirmed a six-point-three percent increase; and one accountable company behind your whole system, with over eleven thousand dollars of warranty and service value built in. In this territory, that list doesn't need a single invented dollar."

"What does my extra generation earn?" (OPPD-specific — the avoided-cost answer)

"Straight answer: inside any month, your generation cancels your usage at full retail — that's the statute working for you. Whatever's left over at month-end earns OPPD's avoided-cost rate — a wholesale-class credit well below retail, carried forward and cashed out once a year. The exact cents live in their Rate 483, we're pinning them from the rate manual right now, and I won't guess a number I haven't verified. What I can tell you today: the credit is small enough that the right answer is sizing your system to your usage rather than over-producing — that's a design conversation, and it's one more thing we do honestly."

"Is there a rebate for the battery?" (the full-honesty answer)

"Here's the complete list, straight: no battery rebate at OPPD, no VPP program anywhere in Nebraska — none of the manufacturers operate one here — no state solar tax credit, and the federal credit expired at the end of last year. OPPD does run a two-thousand-dollar solar rebate through their Trade Ally installer channel — that's solar-side money with its own rules, not battery money, and I won't blur the two. One more piece of honesty most quotes hide: solar equipment is sales-taxable in Nebraska, and it's in the price I show you — though your system does carry the state's property-tax exemption for customer-generators. The math that's left is the real math: backup in record-book territory, the rate curve, and the takeover."

"Should I wait to see if net metering changes?" (the anti-manufacture answer)

"There's nothing to wait on — and nothing to race, either. Nebraska's net metering is a state statute, on the books since 2009, with no sunset and nothing filed against it — the law even bars utilities from adding burdens beyond it. I won't sell you a deadline that doesn't exist. The clocks that are real here are the ones in OPPD's own record books: the storm season that now spans July and March both, and a confirmed six-point-three percent rate step. Those aren't reasons to panic — they're reasons the battery's actual jobs matter."

"Why is the loan more than the system price?"

"The cash price is $17,000–18,500 depending on config. Service Finance adds dealer fees bringing the financed amount to about $22,068–23,942. Cash or a HELOC is cheaper if that's an option. There's no battery rebate here and the federal credit expired — what the payment buys is backup in the territory that set outage records two years running, position against a confirmed rate step, and the takeover, with over $11K of the total in warranty, service, and inverter coverage — on a proposal honest enough to show you today's bill barely moving."

11. DO SAY / NEVER SAY

12. Required Disclosures

1. ☐ Nebraska net-metering statute (Neb. Rev. Stat. §70-2001 through 70-2005) provides full-retail netting within each monthly billing period; under this arrangement a battery provides minimal bill-arbitrage value, and projections show the with-battery bill approximately unchanged with this explanation displayed. The battery's represented value is backup power, rate-trajectory positioning, and the system takeover.
2. ☐ Month-end excess generation is credited at OPPD's avoided-cost rate (Rate 483), which is below retail, carried forward monthly and settled annually; the exact credit rate is pending confirmation from OPPD's rate manual and no excess-credit figure is represented until confirmed.
3. ☐ No representation is made that Nebraska net metering is expiring, changing, or subject to any deadline; the statute contains no sunset provision. The statutory 1% aggregate-capacity provision is not represented as a present constraint.
4. ☐ OPPD's confirmed 2026 rate increase (6.3%) and rate scenarios (3%/5%/7%) are trajectory context, not battery savings. OPPD rates are set by its elected board; no state commission jurisdiction applies.
5. ☐ No VPP program operates in Nebraska; no battery rebate exists; OPPD's $2,000 solar rebate is a solar-installation incentive through the Trade Ally channel and is not included in battery economics; the Smart Thermostat program is unrelated to batteries. No program income is quoted.
6. ☐ Nebraska provides no state solar tax credit; solar and battery equipment is subject to Nebraska sales tax, which is included in quoted pricing; customer-generators receive the statutory property-tax exemption. No federal ITC applies after 12/31/2025.
7. ☐ Storm references (July 2024 windstorm, 220,545 out; March 2025 blizzard, 106,000 out; 2020 derecho; April 2024 Elkhorn tornado) are OPPD-attributed events from documented sources. Backup duration depends on system sizing and load, and whole-home coverage through a multi-day event is not implied.
8. ☐ Align Solar Protection is non-transferable; workmanship warranty transfer requires written consent; manufacturer warranties transfer per OEM terms. Align coverage is contingent on inspection + age limits (panels <15 yr, inverters <7 yr). Pricing confirmed in the tool before commitment.

13. Quick-Reference Numbers (dated — confirm before quoting)

• THE REGISTER: MONTHLY-NETTING-ZERO by statute — full-retail netting within each monthly billing period (§70-2001 et seq., LB 436/2009, since 2009, NO sunset); battery today-bill ~$0 — rendered AND said first, on purpose; NO invented arbitrage, ever
• Retail (CONFIRMED July 2026): 11.937¢ summer / 9.503¢ winter + 0.521¢ FPPA + $30.00 service charge = ~$154.58/mo at 1,000 kWh summer | 2026 increase: 6.3% CONFIRMED
• Excess: avoided cost (Rate 483) — ¢ BEING PINNED (rate manual); annual cash-out; NEVER guessed; right-size-don't-over-produce is the design answer
• Statute guards: 25 kW cap; 1% aggregate provision NOT pitched as urgency; utilities cannot add burdens; statute silent on batteries
• Programs: NO VPP in Nebraska (verified); NO battery rebate; $2,000 solar rebate = Trade Ally installer-channel SOLAR money (never in the battery stack); thermostat DR = thermostats
• Taxes: no NE solar credit; solar equipment SALES-TAXABLE (priced in); property-tax exemption for customer-generators (statutory); federal ITC expired 12/31/2025
• Structure: 100% public power state; elected board sets rates; no PSC
• Inverter replacement out-of-pocket: $3,500–5,000 | Takeover bundle: ~$11,800
• Default config: backup $18,500 / self-consumption $17,000
• Storm anchors (ALL OPPD-attributed — never borrowed): July 2024 windstorm 220,545 (LARGEST EVER); March 2025 blizzard 106,000 (MOST DESTRUCTIVE BY DAMAGE); Aug 2020 derecho ~57,000; April 2024 Elkhorn EF-4 10,158

14. Sell Hard, Sell Honest — the standing rules

• The ~$0 is said before it's shown. The statute already nets at retail monthly — the rep who states it first owns the room, and every competitor inventing arbitrage here is fighting a statute that wins.
• The record books carry the close. 220,545 and 106,000, in the utility's own accounting, two seasons apart — understate and let the numbers work.
• The excess credit is pinned or silent — Rate 483's cents come from the rate manual, never from a rep's mouth.
• No manufactured clocks — the statute has no sunset, and the 1% cap is not a race.
• The 6.3% is quoted as what it is — a confirmed board action, never laundered into battery savings.
• The solar rebate stays in the solar column — Trade Ally money never touches the battery stack.
• The tax truth is priced, not buried — sales-taxable equipment said out loud, the property-tax exemption credited honestly.
• Public power is the customer's own utility — respected, never villainized; the pitch is position, not grievance.
• Never quote the federal ITC (expired). OPPD's storm counts are OPPD's — no other Nebraska utility borrows them.