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NIPSCO is proposing to make the data center customer pay for transmission upgrades needed to serve the data center. In contrast, Indiana utility I&M is forcing its captive ratepayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in transmission upgrades for Big Tech data centers.

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NIPSCO also stated that it executed a 600 MW capacity contract "from a third-party thermal generator" for 2027. Hallador, owner of the coal-fired Merom Station, announced yesterday a $20 million contract for 2027 👀. Is NIPSCO buying coal capacity for its data centers?

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Other ERAS info posted to MISO shows that NIPSCO is planning to add *another* NGCC in addition to its 2,600 MW proposal for Schahfer, bringing their planned gas additions for data centers to 3,500 MW. The entire NIPSCO utility has a peak of 2,300 MW, before data center load.

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Strangely, NIPSCO has redacted the (1) location of the 2,600 MW gas plant and (2) the year in which the Mitchell battery will come online. It sure looks like this information is publicly posted on MISO's website (images in green)! Battery built by 2028. Gas plants at Schahfer.

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New🔴: NIPSCO is requesting IURC approval of a 15-year special contract with a 2,400 MW data center customer, whose identity is not revealed but is "one of the largest corporations in the world." The data centers will be served with gas, batteries, and possibly coal.

Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

A new 500 MW customer -- most likely, another data center -- is proposing to come to Fort Wayne, according to a new AEP submission. Its ~10 miles away from a 1,200 MW Google data center under construction.

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

We (Citizens Action Coalition) are now tracking more than 10,000 MW of data centers being planned and constructed in Indiana by the Big 4 tech companies. These facilities could use more than 80% of our electricity. Dozens of additional large data centers have also been proposed by others.

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

The ink isn't even dry on AES Indiana's IRP, which found SMRs are not cost effective under any scenario, and the utility is announcing it is doing a study on siting SMRs at its power plants!? More imprudent and wasteful spending that will result in rate hikes for Indy residents.

A follow up email from IDEM indicates the data center sent untested, potentially contaminated soil to other locations and directs the data center to address the issue in its response due this month t.co/nXjS6FuTMW

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This data center being built in Michigan City, IN, violated environmental policies by taking soil so heavily contaminated that it reeked of chemical odor and, instead of testing it for contamination, used it to create berms for the data center. t.co/VSDnVIyUNg

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A data center development recently caught ignoring environmental laws in Indiana is also being picketed by union workers for relying primarily on out-of-state labor. Not only do data centers provide few permanent jobs, they aren't even using local labor to build 'em! local150.org/news/local-1...

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Residential customers will pay 40% of the transmission-related costs and 57% of the distribution-related costs associated with the project.

Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

New: Duke Energy Indiana is proposing to force ratepayers to subsidize a transmission project to serve a Meta data center and other C&I customers at River Ridge. The cost of the project just 🚨doubled🚨 to $216 million. Data centers are making your utility bill go up📈

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CenterPoint has proposed a $29.9 million transmission project to serve "Project Raider" located along the transmission line stretching between two coal plants in southwest Indiana. Project Raider will use 600 MW of power, suggesting it is a data center or very large industrial customer.

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

New analysis by AES Indiana shows that new nuclear SMRs are wildly uneconomic and would significantly raise utility bills for Hoosiers, even assuming big price declines by 2035 and lavish subsidies by federal and state government.

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

The moment Google withdrew its petition for an AI data center in Indianapolis last night.🎉 Organizing works! We can win when we fight back against Big Tech! AI data centers are NOT inevitable. This is the ninth one stopped in Indiana thanks to communities organizing in opposition. 💪

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

As electricity-guzzling data centers flock to Indiana, utilities are proposing the most expensive gas plants in state history, the Governor and President are pushing to keep uneconomic coal plants open, and local govs are banning renewables. A disaster for ratepayers & climate.

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Great story on how Hoosiers across the state are getting organized, fighting back, and WINNING against large data center developments that threaten their communities. 5 data centers defeated...and counting!

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

I have been asked "why oppose this data center, they will just re-locate it somewhere else if you stop it." Wrong. Even the data center company admitted that they won't build this data center somewhere else. They needed this location because of its access to transmission.

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Hoosiers defeat another dubious data center proposal! 💪 That is the fifth data center proposal in Indiana to be withdrawn in the past year after staunch, organized local opposition.

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Remember, this is just the value of the sales tax on *electric bills* only. Data centers like the campus owned by Amazon will also get this sales tax exemption on servers, computers, software, and other equipment essential to data center operations.

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

For example, I&M -- a utility in PJM owned by AEP -- is expecting 4.4 GW of data center load growth by 2030, increasing to >6 GW into the mid-2030s. Yet it is only planning to procure 50 MW of battery storage during this time (compared to 6,690 MW of natural gas).

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Grid operators have very few tools to address situations where thousands of MW of data center load instantly trip offline. PJM has hampered battery storage, limiting a key tool. NERC is woefully behind on developing new reliability standards to address this threat.

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

PJM's data center load growth and hostility to battery storage is now putting grid reliability at risk for 65 million retail customers across 13 states. In a recent near-miss event, "in order to keep themselves online, data centers risked grid reliability for everyone else."

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Ben Inskeep @beninskeep.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Our CAC updated interactive data center (DC) map is now tracking 28 DC proposals in Indiana, including: - 11 DCs with anticipated power demand totaling 10,000 MW - 13 DCs with unknown, but likely substantial, planned power demand - 4 DC proposals that were withdrawn / stopped

Indiana Governor Braun signed several energy executive orders today, including one directing IURC and Office of Energy Development to evaluate every coal plant in the state and consider extending the life of every unit, due to AI data center load growth. www.in.gov/gov/files/EO...

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For Indiana, this works out to about 12 MWh per year for a typical household. That passes the gut check -- it is about 1,000 kWh per month. Links to data sources: eia.gov/electricity/... data.census.gov

Now calculate how much power a typical household uses in a year. I used U.S. Census Bureau data on number of households in Indiana (2.8 million) and then U.S. Energy Information Administration data on total residential retail electric sales in 2024 (33.2 million MWh).

Multiply the data center's demand (MW) by its load factor, and multiple that by 8,760 hours per year to get the data center's annual electricity consumption (MWh per year). For Amazon, that works out to 17.7 million MWh per year.

The first set of information you need is the data center's anticipated peak demand (or contract capacity) and their load factor. For Amazon, it was disclosed to be 2,250 MW and they didn't object to a 90% load factor assumption in Cause No. 46097.