Citizen Power | September 2026

Citizen Power Newsletters

Storms Abound  ~  Regulatory Roundup  ~  Data Center Digest  ~  CAC Shoutout  ~  CAC in the News

Storms Abound 

We hope you all stayed safe and weathered the unprecedented storms earlier this month that saw torrential rain leading to flooding in Eastern and Central Indiana and a major storm that kept parts of Northwest Indiana without power for more than two weeks. Our thoughts and well wishes go out to all of the Hoosiers across the state dealing with its terrible impacts.

As Hoosiers across the state are trying to recover from unrelenting wind and rain, a political tempest continues to batter Indianapolis, and the pace of new developments in the utility and energy world has been nothing short of blistering. 

It now seems that not a week goes by without a new scandal emerging, a change in IURC commissioners, blowback to a major regulatory decision, or a development in a critical legal challenge. Add to that the frenetic pace of data center developments, moratoria, ordinances, and permit filings leading to town halls, webinars, public comments, and rallies. 

And we’re keeping our ears to the ground monitoring the chatter on the upcoming legislative session, which could feature further shakeups to the status quo, and continuing conversations with lawmakers and stakeholders to position consumers and the environment well for the 2027 legislative session that will be here in the blink of an eye.

Thanks for your continued support during these busy and challenging times. 

With gratitude,

The CAC Team

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Regulatory Roundup

**IURC Orders Duke to Refund $30 Million to Ratepayers in CAC Coal Ash Victory**

The IURC issued an order in Cause Number 42061 ECR 45 directing Duke Energy Indiana to refund $30 million to customers over the next six months, while also preventing it from charging certain coal ash cleanup costs to ratepayers in the future. In total, CAC’s advocacy saved Duke customers more than $60 million in coal ash cleanup costs. No action from customers is needed to receive the refund, as it will automatically be applied to electric bills going forward as a component of the Environmental Compliance Adjustment tracker.

The case stems from a CAC victory at the Indiana Court of Appeals last year that had challenged Duke Energy Indiana’s massive coal ash cleanup spending that did not receive prior IURC approval. In this proceeding, the IURC determined how to implement CAC’s court victory. Thankfully, the IURC heeded CAC’s urging to reject a particularly greedy Duke proposal that would have given its shareholders an extra $20 million in coal ash insurance proceeds at the expense of Duke customers. 

**NIPSCO Requests $38 Million Rate Hike for Expensive and Unreliable Coal Clunkers**

NIPSCO made an unusual filing at FERC requesting a $38 million rate increase on midwesterners -- including NIPSCO, Duke Energy, AES Indiana, and CenterPoint electric ratepayers in Indiana -- to pay for Schahfer coal plant operating losses and repair costs incurred in Q1 2026. The coal plant had long been planned to retire in December 2025, when the Trump administration abruptly issued a 90-day emergency order – subsequently renewed in March and June 2026 – directing NIPSCO to continue operating the aging and expensive coal plant.

This is just the first of what could be multiple rate hikes on midwesterners to pay for dilapidated coal plants the Trump administration has ordered stay open in an unprecedented and unlawful federal overreach into Indiana utilities’ business decisions.

Schahfer Unit 17 has been offline since March 1 and will not return to service until October 2026, and Schahfer Unit 18 has been offline since July 2025 after a catastrophic failure and will not return to service until it undergoes extraordinarily expensive repairs to rebuild it, estimated at December 2026. This means NIPSCO’s subsequent Q2 and Q3 cost recovery filings could be considerably higher, as unlike the Q1 filing, there will not be any market revenues from operating the coal plant to help offset costs. 

**AES Indiana Threatens Legal Challenge Following Zay Firing, Lawsuit**

After Governor Braun fired Commissioner Andy Zay, Zay filed an eye-popping lawsuit against the Governor and various administration officials demanding immediate reinstatement to the IURC. Zay alleged that he was unlawfully fired without cause and was not provided an opportunity to respond to or even view allegations of wrongdoing prior to his firing on August 3. The lawsuit also alleges Zay was asked to resign following his vote to approve a $71 million AES Indiana rate hike, was pressured by the administration to discuss and share information on pending cases in violation of the law, and was abruptly dismissed to prevent him from voting on CAC and OUCC requests to reconsider the AES Indiana rate case order. 

Following Zay’s firing, the IURC Nominating Committee did not issue a call for applications or conduct any interviews of applicants. Rather, it met once and provided a list of three prior candidates, with Governor Braun selecting former Indianapolis City-County Councilor and former IDEM official Josh Bain to fill Zay’s seat. 

On August 12th, AES Indiana filed a Motion in Cause Number 46258 urging the IURC not to take action on the requests for reconsideration of its rate case order due to the allegations in the Zay lawsuit.

On August 17th, the State of Indiana filed multiple documents in response to Zay’s lawsuit, some of which appear to show that Zay used campaign funds to provide gifts to staff at the IURC. 

On August 22nd, a settlement was announced that would resolve Zay’s lawsuit by awarding him $625,000.

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Data Center Digest

• CAC is presenting an AI data center 2026 webinar update at 6:30pm on Tues, Sept 1st -- you can register at citact.org/dc-in-2026-webinar. We will provide legislative context, an overview of data centers now under construction and the energy and transmission buildout to serve them, and how local governments and communities are responding.

   

• The Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development recommended approval of Indy Economic Development Inc.’s $242.8 million subsidy package for the Sabey data center in Decatur Township. It includes a 10-year, 60% real property tax abatement and a 15-year, 90% personal property tax abatement for Sabey and the data center tenant(s).

   

• The Indianapolis City-County Council approved a data center moratorium through December 2027, which also received final approval from the Metropolitan Development Commission. The City of Indianapolis joins Indiana municipalities of Charlestown, Ingalls, Jeffersonville, Merrillville, New Albany, and Valparaiso in enacting a data center moratorium. 

   

• EQT Real Estate filed a letter of intent stating it plans to build a 130-acre, 4 million square foot data center campus in Hancock County, local media reported. EQT Real Estate is a business segment of EQT, which is also the manager of EQT Infrastructure VI fund, which is one of the entities purchasing AES Corp. as part of BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners-led consortium.

   

• RadiusDC submitted an air pollution permit application at IDEM for 22 backup diesel generators at its planned Plainfield data center.

   

• Warrick County and Washington County each passed a moratorium on data centers. CAC is now tracking 25 counties in Indiana that have passed a data center moratorium.

   

• An update on MISO’s Expedited Resource Addition Study (ERAS) projects shows additional proposed utility-scale resources could get fast-track approval to connect to the grid, primarily to serve data centers.

  New projects submitted this summer include:

  • The 500 megawatt (MW) Trotman Energy Center gas plant in Sullivan County to serve a “large load” in that county (possibly the Heartland Industrial Park data center).

  • A 400-MW battery in Pike County to serve Decennial Group (possibly its Fulton County data center).

  • A 508-MW battery in Vermillion County to serve a large load in Clark County (possibly the Meta data center).

  • A 600-MW battery in La Porte County and a 659-MW gas plant in Sullivan County to serve unidentified loads.

   

• Take a drive with CAC Program Director Ben Inskeep as he drives through the Meta data center construction site along SR 32 in Indiana in this 6-minute video tour.

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CAC Shoutout

CAC gives our September shoutout to GridLab, which provides expert capacity and thought leadership to address technical challenges and reliability questions in the implementation of clean energy policies. GridLab has provided instrumental support and technical expertise to CAC on issues like utility resource planning, reliability impacts of data centers, and demand-side management  (DSM, i.e., energy efficiency on the customer side of the meter) solutions.

As NIPSCO kicks off its Integrated Resource Planning and DSM Market Potential Study processes, which will play a pivotal role in determining whether its coal-fired power plants retire or continue operating and the amount and timing of DSM resources, we are especially grateful to have support and assistance from leading technical experts at GridLab.

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CAC in the News

• CAC Executive Director Kerwin Olson was quoted in a State Affairs article detailing how Hoosiers could be forced to pick up the tab for data center energy and infrastructure needs.

   

  Although the Braun administration believes that data centers will help lower utility bills, “The administration is sort of speaking out of both sides of their mouth,” Olson said. “On the one hand, they are saying, ‘Build, build, build,’ and out of the other side of their mouth, they’re saying, ‘But don’t raise bills.’

   

  "Those two ideas are in conflict with each other, because in the world of utility economics, in the world of ratemaking, building stuff costs money. And guess who pays those costs? Ratepayers. So, when you build new power plants, transmission lines, distribution systems, substations, those come at an extraordinary price, and that stuff gets added to utility bills.”

   

   

• CAC Program Director Ben Inskeep spoke with the Chicago Tribune about NIPSCO’s efforts to charge customers for a coal plant they intended to retire, but the federal government is forcing it to continue operating.

   

  Inskeep said CAC is “very concerned” about the $38 million case at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

   

  “The coal units are not operating and haven’t generated any electricity since late February, but consumers are being asked to pay for repairing them,” Inskeep said.

   

   

• Our Executive Director Kerwin Olson spoke with the Indianapolis Star about Attorney General Rokita and Governor Braun’s efforts to keep old coal plants operating due to data centers’ energy needs.

   

  “What it means for consumers is higher costs," said Kerwin Olson.  “Economic and planning decisions to retire coal plants are made through processes, analysis and data, and coal plants have been phased out due to how expensive they are to operate and maintain, Olson said.”

   

   

• CAC’s Director of Development Kelly Hamman spoke with Fox 59 about Indy data center moratorium, stating that the moratorium is a good first step towards addressing community concerns about unprecedented data center development. 

   

   

• WRTV covered former IURC Commissioner Andy Zay’s lawsuit alleging that Governor Braun’s office unlawfully removed Zay from his position at the IURC. Pointing out that this chaos further erodes public trust in the IURC, our Kerwin Olson renewed CAC’s call for electing members of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, stating “we're one of only four states where either those who regulate our utilities are not directly elected by the public or confirmed by one or both chambers of the General Assembly.” 

   

   

• Our Program Director Ben Inskeep spoke with Fox 32 Chicago about the extreme storm that hit Northwest Indiana in mid-August, causing the largest electric outage event in NIPSCO’s history. Inskeep acknowledged the severity of the storms - with 90 mile per hour winds - while also pointing out that NIPSCO spent $2.5 billion on transmission and distribution infrastructure in the last decade. He stated that after power is fully restored, the utility will face scrutiny on whether they should have been better prepared, whether the grid should have sustained better, and what we can do to prevent such a significant outage moving forward. 

   

   

• Our Program Director Ben Inskeep spoke with the IndyStar about the grid impacts of Amazon’s hyperscale data center in New Carlisle. “To my knowledge, this is the first specific instance of a data center in America being ordered to temporarily reduce their power consumption from the grid by utilizing their onsite emergency backup generators to help maintain grid reliability during an extreme weather event,” said Inskeep, in reference to the January 2026 grid emergency that the public was never informed about.

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