September 29, 2026 · Tippecanoe · Madison · Kosciusko · NIPSCO · AES INDIANA · DUKE INDIANA · IM AEP

AES Indiana's Phase 2 Rate Increase Takes Effect in January, No Matter What the SPARK Grid Grant Covers

AES Indiana's Phase 2 rate increase takes effect in January no matter what the SPARK grid grant covers. Here's what Indiana manufacturers need to track now.

Daniel BurkePublished every day

AES Indiana's Phase 2 rate increase takes effect in January regardless of Indiana's new $175 million SPARK grid grant, and the question of who pays for data center transmission capacity is still unresolved at the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. Governor Braun announced the federal grant this week to fund upgrades at the PJM-MISO seam, the point where Indiana sits between two regional grids, but that money does not touch the rate case AES Indiana customers in the Indianapolis area are already inside of. The rehearing on Phase 2 runs into early 2027.

01Statewide

AES Indiana's Phase 2 Rate Increase Continues While the SPARK Grant Covers the Seam Upgrade

Indiana secured the SPARK grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to cover roughly half the cost of upgrading transmission lines at the PJM-MISO seam, using reconductoring technology on existing corridors instead of building new lines. Five investor-owned utilities, AES Indiana, CenterPoint, Duke Energy Indiana, NIPSCO, and I&M, carry the other half of that cost, and each will likely seek to recover its share through future rate cases.

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02Madison

Nestle Loses $21 Million Tax Reduction Bid in Anderson

The Indiana Tax Court affirmed Madison County's $55 million assessment of Nestle USA's Anderson coffee creamer plant on September 23rd, rejecting Nestle's six-year appeal for tax years 2018 through 2023 and the $21 million reduction the company wanted. Nestle made capital improvements to the facility, and under Indiana's now-repealed burden-shifting statute, that improvement triggered the assessment increase and put the burden on Nestle to disprove the county's number.

For the huddle: If capital investment in our Indiana facilities can itself trigger a higher assessment and shift the burden onto us to disprove it, how do we document capex and appraisals now to avoid the trap Nestle just lost on?

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03Statewide

Slate Auto and Two Orthopedic Suppliers Compete for the Same Warsaw Workers

Slate Auto is headlining the HireKosciusko job fair on October 1st. The company's roughly $400 million Warsaw electric truck plant has hired more than 500 people toward a 2,000-job target, and Paragon Medical and Tecomet, both orthopedic device manufacturers, are exhibiting at the same event.

For the huddle: If Slate Auto's wage floor pulls skilled machinists and quality techs out of the orthopedic device supply chain, what's our retention plan for the ortho-adjacent talent we compete for in Kosciusko County?

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04Statewide

Gov. Braun's $175M Federal SPARK Grid Grant

Gov. Mike Braun announced last week that Indiana secured a federal SPARK grant from the U.S. Department of Energy totaling more than $175 million, covering roughly half the cost of upgrading existing transmission corridors at the PJM-MISO seam using reconductoring technology instead of new lines.

For the huddle: With data centers projected to exceed 20% of Indiana's electricity demand, should we be pushing for a seat at the table in IURC's large-load cost-allocation proceedings before those infrastructure costs get socialized onto industrial ratepayers?

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05Tippecanoe

Purdue-Illinois Semiconductor Workforce Initiative

Purdue University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign signed an MOU on Sept. 18, 2026, publicly announced Sept.

For the huddle: If SK Hynix's advanced-packaging ramp at Purdue Research Park needs credentialed workers within two to three years, are we positioned to recruit from this pipeline before it gets absorbed by SK Hynix and MediaTek first?

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06Tippecanoe

Purdue Opens Rittal/Eplan Engineering Labs

Purdue University, Rittal, and Eplan (sister companies under Germany's Friedhelm Loh Group) cut the ribbon Sept. 15, 2026 on two new labs in Dudley Hall: the Eplan Electrical Engineering Technology Projects Lab and the Rittal Automation Systems Lab.

For the huddle: With panel-shop and control-cabinet talent now training specifically on the Eplan/Rittal toolchain, should we build a direct recruiting relationship with Purdue Polytechnic before automotive and aerospace employers lock up this graduating class?

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Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: Does the SPARK grid grant mean my electric rates are going down? A: No. The grant funds half the cost of PJM-MISO transmission upgrades, but AES Indiana's Phase 2 rate increase is already scheduled for January and moves ahead independent of the grant.

Q: If I have an open property tax appeal in Indiana, does the Nestle ruling affect me? A: Only if your appeal covers tax years still governed by Indiana's now-repealed burden-shifting statute, in which case the county can win by making you disprove its assessed value, so your documentation needs to stand on its own.

Q: Should I worry about hiring competition in Kosciusko County? A: Yes, if you source labor from Warsaw or nearby, the October 1 HireKosciusko job fair puts Slate Auto's EV plant directly against Paragon Medical and Tecomet for the same worker pool.

For more on how Indiana industrial ratepayers can keep from absorbing costs tied to data center growth, see our guide to utility cost allocation for data centers. If you want to understand what it takes to intervene in a rate case like AES Indiana's Phase 2 filing, read our breakdown of utility rate case intervention.

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