Sep. 10--The days of inexpensive electricity may be over.

With China importing U.S. coal, railroads running on expensive diesel and stiff competition for natural gas, uranium and other energy sources, electric bills are heading up.

Omaha Public Power District said Tuesday that it probably will increase rates an average of 14.6 percent starting Jan. 1, including 11 percent for residences and as much as 27 percent for commercial customers.

That would be the steepest increase since the energy-crisis days of 1973, said W. Gary Gates, OPPD president and chief executive.

Meanwhile, the Nebraska Public Power District is considering a 7 percent wholesale rate increase, more than 10 times its average annual increase over the past 20 years.

The Lincoln Electric System raised rates an average of 9.1 percent on Sept. 1 and is forecasting a March 1 increase of between 3 and 6 percent.

Last week, Kansas City Power & Light asked regulators for a 17.5 percent rate increase.

Gates said OPPD and its 340,000 customers in 13 counties have saved money from low-cost coal and rail-transportation contracts the past five years.

"Those days are gone," he said.

Those contracts allowed the public utility to avoid rate increases, even with higher medical expenses for employees and damage from severe weather.

But starting Jan. 1, if OPPD's directors approve on Dec. 11, residential bills will average $8.73 a month more, an increase of more than $100 a year.

OPPD's five-year contracts for coal and transportation expire this year. The lowest bids for a new five-year agreement called for 150 percent increases -- $107 million per year -- in what OPPD would pay to have coal dug out of Wyoming's mines and delivered from 2009 to 2014.

OPPD was able to whittle down the increase to $97 million by buying new, lightweight railcars and reserving coal at lower prices on the spot market. Even so, the contracts will cost 135 percent more than the current ones.

The huge increases signal a profound change in the energy game, Gates said, bringing price volatility and emphasizing the need for electricity customers to conserve as much as they can.

OPPD says wind power is expensive and intermittent, although worth trying in a limited way. More nuclear power is years away, if it is an option at all. That leaves coal and natural gas, and both are getting more expensive.

The Jan. 1 rate increase, to be listed in a new line on your bill as a "fuel and transportation cost adjustment," would raise enough revenue to cover the higher costs of buying coal and hauling it via Union Pacific Railroad to OPPD's power plants.