IURC Must Prioritize Public Interest in AES Indiana Data Center Proposal
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 22, 2026
Contacts:
Ben Inskeep, Program Director, binskeep@citact.org
Kerwin Olson, Executive Director, kolson@citact.org
INDIANAPOLIS – Citizens Action Coalition (“CAC”) filed the public testimony of Ben Inskeep, CAC Program Director, on Wednesday, asking the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (“IURC”) to modify AES Indiana’s proposal for serving a Google data center in Monrovia, Indiana. The case is docketed before the IURC as Cause No. 46394.
CAC’s testimony emphasized the importance of transparency from both the data center and the utility, as well as ensuring the data center pays its full and fair share of costs now and into the future. CAC concluded that modifications to the proposal are needed to better protect Hoosier ratepayers and ensure consistency with Indiana statute and the public interest.
CAC recommended that the IURC:
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Direct AES Indiana to make public information about its proposal that AES Indiana has marked as confidential, including the name of the Alphabet subsidiary that executed the contract with AES Indiana, the duration of the contract, and the rates it will pay under deal.
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Direct AES Indiana to make changes to the data center’s rates to ensure it pays its full and fair share of costs. These recommended changes include (1) making the data center pay 100% of transmission Network Upgrade costs so other AES Indiana customers aren’t charged for the data center’s infrastructure costs; (2) updating the data center’s rates to reflect the full amount of power capacity it wants; and (3) requiring the data center to pay all of the Network Upgrade costs even if it closes early.
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Require that AES Indiana credit over-earnings to its customers through its quarterly fuel adjustment clause surcharge so that other AES Indiana customers receive financial benefit from any windfall profits AES Indiana earns from the data center.
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Take any additional actions reasonable and necessary for protecting existing ratepayers, consistent with the public interest and Indiana’s five pillars (affordability, reliability, resiliency, stability, environmental sustainability).
“The Commission should modify AES Indiana’s deal with Google’s Monrovia data center so that it is required to pay its full and fair share of costs and existing AES Indiana ratepayers receive the entire benefit to which they are entitled,” said Mr. Inskeep. “A multi-trillion-dollar company like Google must be transparent with the community, pay its full costs, and be held accountable by regulators.”
Evidentiary hearings in the case are scheduled to begin on August 5th at 10:30 a.m. in Room 222 at the PNC Center in downtown Indianapolis and will continue to August 6th as necessary. The link to stream the hearings will be available closer to time at https://www.youtube.com/@iurcstateofindiana6982/streams.
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The testimony of Ben Inskeep is available at:
Other case-related documents are available at:
https://iurc.portal.in.gov/docketed-case-details/?id=863a591f-643e-f111-88b3-001dd80673f1
