Omaha Public Power District has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement for the 300 MW Milligan 1 wind farm in Nebraska. The project is not new. It has been running since 2021 and selling into the Southwest Power Pool the whole time. So the contract does not create a wind farm. It changes how an existing one gets paid, and federal filings show by how much.
Key takeaways
- EDF Renewables signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) for the 300 MW Milligan 1 Wind project in Saline County, Nebraska, announced on 20 September 2024.
- The Milligan 1 wind farm has been operating since 2021 and, according to FERC data, has supplied energy to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) since it started up.
- FERC filings compiled in Leap show Milligan 1 Wind LLC selling to OPPD at a fixed $26.50 per MWh in every quarter from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the second quarter of 2026, after sales reported at market-based RTO/ISO rates through mid-2024.
- Milligan 1 settled about $10.6 million for 741,422 MWh in 2023, roughly $14 per MWh, and about $26.0 million for 981,366 MWh in 2025 at $26.50 per MWh, according to FERC data in Leap.
- Enerdatics records five wind PPAs in the SPP market announced in 2023 and 2024; three disclose a term, and OPPD's 20-year Milligan 1 contract is the longest of them.
Why sign a long-term contract for a wind farm that already runs?
Because an operating wind farm without a contract is exposed to whatever the market pays. SPP is a regional transmission organisation, the body that runs the grid and the wholesale power market across a swathe of the central US. A generator selling at market rates there earns the prevailing price in each hour, which on windy nights can fall very low because every wind farm in the region is producing at once.
A fixed-price PPA removes that exposure. The buyer agrees to pay a set price for each MWh over a fixed term, regardless of what the market does. For the owner, it turns volatile revenue into a predictable stream. For the buyer, it locks in supply at a known cost for two decades.
Milligan 1 is unusual only in the timing. Many wind farms sign their offtake contract before construction, because lenders want to see one. Milligan 1 ran for roughly three years before this one was announced.
What does the FERC data show about the price change?
It shows the shift almost to the quarter. FERC, the federal regulator, requires sellers of wholesale power to report their transactions, and Leap compiles those filings by project. Through the first half of 2024, Milligan 1 Wind LLC reported its sales to OPPD at RTO/ISO rates, meaning prices set by the SPP market. Quarterly weighted averages over that period ranged from $5.16 to $15.24 per MWh.
In the third quarter of 2024 the filings split. Part of the output was reported at RTO/ISO rates, averaging $14.44 per MWh, and part at a fixed $26.50. The fixed-price share that quarter was 84,059 MWh, against 94,289 MWh still sold at market rates, consistent with a contract that took effect partway through. From the fourth quarter onward every quarter is fixed at $26.50 per MWh. The changeover lines up with the September 2024 announcement.
The revenue effect follows from those numbers. The 2025 settlements reached about $26.0 million, roughly 2.5 times the 2023 total, on about a third more volume. The extra volume explains part of that gap. The higher price per MWh explains the rest.
Is $26.50 per MWh a high price for OPPD?
No. It sits in the middle of OPPD's own portfolio. FERC data in Leap for the first half of 2026 shows OPPD paying fixed prices of $13.25 per MWh to the Sholes Wind Energy Center, about $25 to the Grande Prairie wind farm and about $33 to Prairie Breeze. Its smaller contracts cost far more: about $70 per MWh for the Petersburg wind farm and about $86 for Flat Water.
Milligan 1 at $26.50 therefore costs OPPD slightly more than Grande Prairie and well below Prairie Breeze. Against the market prices Milligan 1 was earning before, it is a large step up for EDF. Against what OPPD already pays for wind, it is ordinary.
Enerdatics' data shows how thinly SPP wind contracts are documented. Leap records five wind PPAs in the SPP market announced across 2023 and 2024. Three disclose a term: OPPD's 20 years for Milligan 1, Cargill's 15-year virtual PPA for the Blue Cloud wind farm and MathWorks' 12-year contract with Enel for 25 Mile Creek. None of the five discloses a tariff. For Milligan 1, the price only becomes visible through the FERC filings that follow.
What does the deal signal for SPP wind?
It signals that public power utilities are prepared to sign long contracts for existing wind rather than waiting for new builds. OPPD is a publicly owned utility serving the Omaha area. A 20-year commitment to a plant already connected to the grid gives it supply with no construction or interconnection risk.
It also shows how much an operating wind farm's value depends on its contract. The physical asset did not change between 2023 and 2025. Its revenue more than doubled because a buyer agreed to a fixed price above what the SPP market was paying. For owners of uncontracted wind in the region, that is the case for seeking a utility buyer even years after commissioning.
EDF has signed long contracts with public power buyers elsewhere. It signed two 20-year contracts with the Southern California Public Power Authority for its Bonanza project in Nevada in 2024. Municipal utilities in other markets have gone longer still, as CPS Energy's 25-year Exodus 1 solar contract in Texas shows.
Frequently asked questions
Who buys power from the Milligan 1 wind farm? Omaha Public Power District buys the output of EDF Renewables' 300 MW Milligan 1 wind farm in Saline County, Nebraska, under a 20-year PPA announced on 20 September 2024.
What price does OPPD pay for Milligan 1 wind power? FERC filings compiled in Leap show Milligan 1 Wind LLC selling to OPPD at a fixed $26.50 per MWh in every quarter from late 2024 to mid-2026. The PPA announcement itself did not disclose a price.
When did the Milligan 1 wind farm start operating? Milligan 1 has been operating since 2021 and supplied the Southwest Power Pool market for about three years before the OPPD contract was announced.
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