AES Indiana's Phase 2 rate increase is hitting your January 2027 bill regardless of the rehearing outcome — and a pending Indiana Supreme Court ruling could significantly restrict your trade association's ability to fight that increase or any future one. Five stories converged on September 19th across Marion, Kosciusko, Tippecanoe, Martin, and Vermillion counties, and three of them are about power. Here is what your team needs to act on before the end of the week.

AES Indiana Rate Rehearing (Cause No. 46258): The January Increase Is Locked

The rehearing on AES Indiana's $71 million base rate increase — IURC Cause No. 46258 — now has a procedural schedule. Attorneys for AES Indiana, the OUCC, Citizens Action Coalition, the City of Indianapolis, and several industrial customers agreed to a one-day evidentiary hearing in early March 2027. That means any new IURC order comes at the earliest in mid-2027.

What this means for Indiana manufacturers: Phase 2 of the rate increase — worth approximately $8.50 per month for a residential customer, with a proportionally larger hit on industrial accounts — takes effect in January 2027, and the OUCC did not request a stay. IURC spokesman Ben Gavelek has confirmed that even with rehearing, reversal is not guaranteed.

The sharpest issue in the case record is this: Citizens Action Coalition documented that AES Indiana executed its first agreement with Google for the Monrovia data center more than a week before filing rebuttal testimony in the rate case — and a second agreement nearly a month before the evidentiary hearing began — without filing a correction to sworn testimony. CAC's argument is that the commission approved the rate structure without a complete record. The IURC has not yet ruled on that allegation. But whatever the rehearing produces sets your industrial rate floor through 2030. AES Indiana has committed not to file another base rate request until then.

What to do now: Build the Phase 2 cost increase into your 2027 energy budget — that increase is three to four months from taking effect. Then audit every demand-response and interruptible-service option you have with AES Indiana before January. If you have not modeled the exposure, start there.

For more on how to read these rate cases and what C&I operators can actually do during an IURC proceeding, see Utility Rate Case Intervention for Commercial & Industrial Operators.

Duke Energy Indiana Supreme Court Case: Your Trade Association's Standing May Be Narrowing

On September 18th, the Indiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a Duke Energy case out of Vermillion County that could significantly restrict how Indiana trade associations intervene in IURC proceedings and state agency dockets on your behalf.

The legal question: can organizations like Citizens Action Coalition sue on behalf of members without naming an individually injured plaintiff? Barnes & Thornburg attorney Peter Rusthoven argued for Duke that no association can proceed without an actually injured party on the record. Earthjustice attorney Kirti Datla defended CAC's and Vote Solar's standing. A coalition of 14 national and state business groups filed a pro-standing amicus brief — because a ruling against CAC would likely force trade associations to name individually injured member companies as co-plaintiffs before they can intervene in any IURC docket.

That is a real operational change even if it does not eliminate standing outright. A ruling could drop before the March AES Indiana rehearing.

What to do now: Identify which trade associations you rely on for IURC intervention. Determine now whether you have a fallback strategy if those groups are forced to restructure how they intervene in rate cases and agency proceedings.

NWS Crane Nuclear Microreactor (Martin County): Indiana's First Power-Producing Reactor by September 2028

The Navy is targeting installation of a shore-based nuclear microreactor at Naval Weapons Station Crane — in Martin County — by September 2028. The system is 20 megawatts or less, licensed under Army authority rather than the standard NRC civilian process. Five vendors are under the Janus contract vehicle; the specific vendor for the Crane installation has not been named.

Representative Erin Houchin explicitly cited WestGate@Crane tenants as beneficiaries of the increased power supply. If your operations or suppliers connect to the southern Indiana defense corridor, the vendor announcement is the next signal to track.

This is consistent with the broader nuclear discussion we have been following in Indiana's grid planning. For background on how small modular reactors and microreactors are being evaluated for C&I power applications, see Small Modular Reactors and Microreactors for Commercial & Industrial Power.

Slate Auto Warsaw Factory (Kosciusko County): First Deliveries Targeted Q4 2026 — With Material Caveats

The Warsaw factory — 1.4 million square feet in a former R.R. Donnelley printing complex that went dark in 2023 — is targeting first customer deliveries of the Blank Slate truck in Q4 2026. The demand picture is real: more than 180,000 reservations against a 150,000-vehicle annual capacity target. The $650 million Series C closed in April 2026, pushing total capital raised to roughly $1.4 billion.

What the headline misses: Slate swapped battery suppliers from South Korea's SK On to Gotion's Illinois plant — a supplier majority-owned by Volkswagen-linked Guoxuan High-Tech — after the federal EV tax credit was eliminated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That policy change also moved the starting price from the originally advertised "under $20,000" to $24,950. Environmental records show asbestos-abatement work scheduled through October 1, 2026, overlapping the Q4 production ramp on the same site.

If Slate converts reservations at scale, Kosciusko County's labor market tightens — and that pressure arrives on a different timeline than the Saab ramp in Tippecanoe County or construction activity at Crane in Martin County.

Saab T-7A West Lafayette Plant (Tippecanoe County): Full-Rate Production Pushed to 2029

The public narrative around Saab's West Lafayette facility — aft fuselages for the Boeing T-7A Red Hawk, 350 aircraft, more than 1,000 Air Force pilots trained annually — is not wrong. It is incomplete.

Boeing's own SEC filings as of Q3 2025 warn that "risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods" on the T-7A. That is a fixed-price contract already more than $1.1 billion in the red. In July 2026, the GAO pushed the full-rate production decision from 2027 to 2029. The low-rate initial production contract approved in April 2026 covers just 14 aircraft at $219 million. Saab has not published a revised headcount plan against the 2029 timeline, so the exact staffing gap is uncertain — but the aft-fuselage line in Tippecanoe County will operate below planned capacity for at least two to three more years.

If any of your supplier or workforce planning assumes Saab's West Lafayette headcount grows on schedule, stress-test that assumption against a 2029 timeline now.

Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: When does the AES Indiana Phase 2 rate increase take effect, and can it be stopped before then?

A: Phase 2 takes effect in January 2027. The OUCC did not request a stay, and IURC spokesman Ben Gavelek has confirmed that reversal is not guaranteed even if the rehearing produces a new order. The evidentiary hearing is set for early March 2027, meaning any revised IURC ruling comes at the earliest in mid-2027 — well after the January increase hits your bill.

Q: What does the Indiana Supreme Court Duke Energy case mean for trade associations fighting utility rate hikes?

A: The case asks whether organizations like Citizens Action Coalition can intervene in state proceedings without naming an individually injured member as a plaintiff. A ruling against associational standing would likely force Indiana trade associations to restructure how they intervene in IURC dockets — potentially requiring named member companies as co-plaintiffs before they can formally oppose a rate case.

Q: What is the nuclear microreactor planned for NWS Crane, and who will build it?

A: The Navy is targeting a shore-based microreactor of 20 megawatts or less at Naval Weapons Station Crane in Martin County by September 2028, licensed under Army authority rather than NRC civilian process. Five vendors hold contracts under the Janus vehicle; the specific builder for the Crane installation has not been announced.

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