October 5, 2026 · Johnson · Marion · Bartholomew · Dearborn · Monroe · AES INDIANA · DUKE INDIANA

Amazon's Greenwood Robotics Plant and the AES Indiana Rate Increase Rehearing: What Indiana Manufacturers Need to Watch

AES Indiana's rate increase rehearing lands in March 2027 while Amazon's Greenwood robotics plant doubles automation capacity. Track both this week.

Daniel BurkePublished every day

Amazon is putting more than $100 million into a robotics manufacturing plant in Greenwood, Johnson County, doubling its in-house robot production, and the automation vendor you buy from today could end up losing business to Amazon itself if Amazon ever sells those robots outside its own warehouses. At the same time, AES Indiana's rate increase keeps adding to your bill in Indianapolis, Marion County, while the AES Indiana rate increase rehearing on whether AES disclosed its Google data center agreements waits until March 11, 2027. Neither decision is in your hands. The rehearing date is the one you can put on your calendar right now.

Amazon's Greenwood Plant Doubles In-House Robot Production

Amazon is building a 585,000-square-foot robotics manufacturing hub in Greenwood with 300 skilled jobs averaging almost $100,000 a year. Amazon has made its own robots since buying Kiva Systems in 2012, and its two Massachusetts plants already produce the Sparrow robotic arm and the Proteus autonomous mover. Greenwood and a new Austin plant double that footprint to four sites total. Integrators like Dematic and Honeywell Intelligrated only face lost business if Amazon starts selling Sparrow and Proteus to outside warehouses, something Amazon has not ruled out. Before you sign your next automation contract, ask your vendor directly where they stand if that happens.

Open this story on its own page →

AES Indiana Rate Increase Rehearing Set for March 2027

Regulators approved AES Indiana's $71 million base rate increase 3-1 on June 17. Phase two, about $8.50 a month for an average household, lands in January, while the rehearing on the case doesn't happen until March 11, 2027, in Indianapolis. Nobody requested a stay, so both phases take effect while the rehearing is pending. Citizens Action Coalition alleges AES signed its Google Monrovia data center agreements more than a week before filing rebuttal testimony in this case and never corrected the record, while asking the same commission to approve $1.3 billion in Google-related infrastructure under a separate cause. That ruling lands close to when the $33.4 billion BlackRock-led takeover of AES's parent company is expected to close. If you're an AES Indiana customer, check with your trade association or any industrial customers already party to this case before March 11.

Open this story on its own page →

Duke Energy's Taylorsville Site Sits Beside One Company's Campus

Duke Energy Indiana named three 2026 Site Readiness Program sites on September 29: Taylorsville in Bartholomew County, St. Leon in Dearborn County, and 87 acres in Bloomington's Monroe County. None has a tenant yet. The Taylorsville site sits beside Grillo's Pickles and a future King's Hawaiian plant, both owned by Irresistible Foods Group, which makes that corridor effectively one company's campus. Reported wages near $30 an hour at the future King's Hawaiian plant will set a new bar for production workers in the area before it even opens. If you staff food or production lines in Bartholomew County, benchmark your turnover in overlapping roles now.

Open this story on its own page →

Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: Will Amazon sell its warehouse robots to other companies? A: Amazon hasn't ruled it out, and Greenwood doubles the production capacity that would make outside sales possible. Ask your automation vendor directly where they stand on this before you sign your next contract.

Q: When does the AES Indiana phase two rate increase take effect? A: Phase two, about $8.50 a month for an average household, lands in January 2027, while the rehearing on whether AES disclosed its Google data center agreements doesn't happen until March 11, 2027. Budgeting off your trailing bills will undercount what you actually owe, since they don't include phase two and barely include phase one.

Q: What does the Duke Energy Taylorsville site mean for my labor pool? A: If you staff food or production roles in Bartholomew County, benchmark your turnover now in the roles that overlap with food production. Reported wages near $30 an hour at the future King's Hawaiian plant will pull workers before the plant even opens.

If you're weighing whether to get involved in the AES Indiana case directly, our guide to utility rate case intervention covers what it costs and what it delivers for commercial and industrial operators. We covered the phase two timing in more detail in AES Indiana's Phase 2 Rate Increase Takes Effect in January, No Matter What the SPARK Grid Grant Covers.

01Johnson · Greenwood

Amazon's $100M Robotics Plant Lands in Greenwood

Amazon will invest more than $100 million to build a 585,000-square-foot robotics manufacturing hub in Greenwood, Indiana, creating 300 skilled manufacturing and engineering jobs averaging nearly $100,000 a year. The plant, alongside a new Austin, Texas facility, doubles Amazon's robot-making footprint to four sites and will produce items like the Sparrow robotic arm and the Proteus autonomous mover for Amazon's own fulfillment network.

Impact: This isn't just a jobs announcement: it's Amazon vertically integrating its robotics supply chain in a way that directly threatens third-party integrators like Dematic, Honeywell, and Rockwell Automation in the $5-7 billion warehouse automation market, while piling competitive pressure on Symbotic, whose $22.5 billion backlog depends almost entirely on Walmart and Target. CEO Andy Jassy has also signaled Amazon may eventually sell robotics externally, meaning Greenwood could flip from captive production to a third-party vendor competing with the same companies it buys from today.
Watch: Whether Amazon confirms external sales of Sparrow/Proteus systems as the 2028 operational target approaches, and how Austin's larger 'multibillion-dollar' R&D role differs from Greenwood's production scope.
For the huddle: If Amazon Robotics eventually sells systems like Sparrow or Proteus to outside warehouses, could we become a customer for that technology instead of competing against it through our current automation vendors?

02Marion · Indianapolis

AES Indiana's $71M Rate Hike Rehearing Drags to 2027

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is reconsidering AES Indiana's $71 million base-rate increase (Cause No. 46258), approved 3-1 on June 17, 2026, with a one-day evidentiary rehearing targeted for March 2027 at the PNC Center in Indianapolis. Phase one of the hike took effect July 27 and phase two (about $8.50/month for an average household) hits in January, even as the case remains unresolved; Citizens Action Coalition's Ben Inskeep and OUCC's Abby Gray are pressing the rehearing after Gov. Mike Braun replaced two commissioners who had supported the increase.

Impact: The real story here is a documented disclosure gap with regulatory teeth: Citizens Action Coalition found AES Indiana executed agreements with Google for its Monrovia data center more than a week before filing rebuttal testimony in the rate case (and never corrected the sworn record) while simultaneously asking the same commission to approve $1.3 billion in Google-related infrastructure under Cause No. 46394. That timing collision, combined with AES Corp.'s pending $33.4 billion BlackRock-led acquisition closing right around the same March 2027 window, means the IURC could be ruling on this rate base just as new private-equity ownership with data-center-driven growth targets takes over.
Watch: The one-day evidentiary hearing expected March 11, 2027, at the PNC Center, and whether the IURC rules the Google agreements constitute a material omission in the original record.
For the huddle: Given that AES's approved rate base may already be built on outdated load assumptions tied to the Google data center deal, should we be pushing our industrial-customer representatives to formally weigh in before the March 2027 hearing instead of waiting for the outcome?

03Bartholomew · Dearborn · Monroe · Taylorsville, St. Leon, Bloomington

Duke Energy's 2026 Site Readiness Picks Span Bartholomew, Dearborn, Monroe

Duke Energy Indiana announced on September 29, 2026 that it selected three properties, the Taylorsville Industrial Site in Bartholomew County, the I-74 St. Leon Alig Site in Dearborn County, and an 87-acre parcel at 3100 W. Fullerton Pike in Bloomington (Monroe County), for its 2026 Site Readiness Program. Duke works with Banning Engineering and Site Selection Group to prepare and market the sites nationally, and President Stan Pinegar said the goal is to give communities 'competitive, development-ready sites' ahead of tenant demand; none of the three has a confirmed project attached yet.

Impact: Duke's 13-year-old program (53 sites prepped, 32 wins, $15 billion recruited) is no longer the only utility running this playbook: Indiana Michigan Power launched its own 'Future Ready Sites Accelerator' this year with a different site-selection vendor, vetting five competing sites in DeKalb County, Muncie, and South Bend, while NIPSCO has instead routed large-load customers through a separate GenCo structure rather than compete on site marketing. That means Indiana's industrial land supply is now actively being fought over by rival utilities, not just rival communities.
Watch: Whether any of the three 2026 sites converts to a named tenant (historically about 60% of Duke-prepared sites eventually do) and how I&M's competing five-site cohort performs in the same recruiting cycle.
For the huddle: If a competitor or a key supplier claims one of these three Duke-readied sites first, does that change our own expansion or supplier-colocation timeline in Bartholomew, Dearborn, or Monroe County?

04Bartholomew · Taylorsville

Taylorsville's Food-Manufacturing Corridor: One Company, Not a Cluster

Duke Energy's Taylorsville Industrial Site designation covers three parcels (21.5 to 68 acres) owned by Force Holdings LLC and Palladin LLC near U.S. 31 and I-65, adjacent to the recently opened Grillo's Pickles plant and a future King's Hawaiian bakery, marketed in partnership with the Greater Columbus Economic Development Corporation's Maclyn Benedict. Duke frames this as an organic food-manufacturing cluster forming along the corridor between Columbus and Indianapolis.

Impact: What's not stated plainly: Grillo's Pickles and King's Hawaiian are both subsidiaries of the same parent, Irresistible Foods Group, meaning this 'cluster' is functionally a single company's campus, and IFG has publicly signaled optionality to add more of its own brands (Shaka Tea, Innovation Bakers) on adjacent land, which could make Duke's 'open market' marketing moot if IFG claims the newly readied parcels itself. Separately, King's Hawaiian's reported wage near $30/hour sets a de facto floor that any other incoming tenant, or any other Bartholomew County employer competing for the same rural workforce, will have to match or beat.
Watch: Whether Irresistible Foods Group itself (rather than an outside tenant) moves to claim the Force Holdings/Palladin parcels for an additional brand before the site reaches open market.
For the huddle: With King's Hawaiian setting close to a $30-an-hour wage floor in German Township, are we prepared to compete for workers in that labor pool, or should we be looking at sites further from this corridor?

05Statewide

Doral's Mammoth Solar Phase 2 Permits Clear in Northern Indiana

Doral secured construction permits for Phase 2 of Mammoth Solar, two projects totaling 1,100 megawatts, pushing the Indiana solar farm's total planned capacity to roughly 2,700 MW by a 2029 completion. CEO Yoni Hantis told Calcalist the project is an agrivoltaic facility combining crop cultivation and grazing with solar generation, feeding power directly into the PJM grid with no battery storage and, so far, no signed offtake contracts with data center operators; Bank of America and Truist Bank are serving as tax-equity partners on the $680-815 million (NIS 2.5-3 billion) phase.

Impact: Skipping storage is a deliberate but risky choice: without it, Mammoth Phase 2 can't qualify for PJM's capacity market, leaving potential revenue on the table even as PJM capacity prices have climbed to $329-333/MW-day, roughly 10 times what they were two years ago. More notably, Doral is pouring $680-815 million into construction with zero signed data-center offtake agreements despite the CEO's stated ambition to build an on-site data-center platform, meaning the project is proceeding into merchant-market risk at a time when PJM's summer peak demand is projected to jump from 160 GW to 253 GW.
Watch: Whether Doral signs a data-center offtake agreement or retrofits battery storage using Indiana's February 2026 surplus interconnection law before the 2029 completion date.
For the huddle: If Mammoth Solar's 1.1 GW Phase 2 ends up selling power into the merchant market rather than under a locked-in contract, could that added regional supply ease pressure on our own industrial electricity rates, or are we still exposed to PJM's rising capacity prices regardless?

This brief