Indiana manufacturers are absorbing three simultaneous pressures this week. Electricity capacity charges across both PJM and MISO are rising at rates that existing tariff structures don't fully address. Indiana's workforce resignation rate is second-highest in the country — with the largest single-month quits increase of any state recorded in December 2025. And Chore-Time's 79,000-square-foot expansion in Milford just broke ground, with a Q1 2027 operational target that sets a hard vendor-positioning deadline for anyone in the agricultural equipment supply chain. Here's what each development means for your operation.

Chore-Time / CTB Breaks Ground on 79,000-Square-Foot Milford Expansion

CTB, Inc. — a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary — held its ceremonial groundbreaking June 10 for a 79,000-square-foot manufacturing addition at Chore-Time's Milford headquarters in Kosciusko County. Physical construction began in April; the target operational date is Q1 2027. The project carries a 10-year tax abatement from the Milford Town Council and Redevelopment Commission, with KEDCO support. No total dollar figure has been disclosed — the 2021 campus renovation covered 38,000 square feet at approximately $20 million, but that was a renovation. This is new construction at more than double the footprint.

The real driver behind the dedicated shipping configuration: cage-free system fulfillment, pulled forward by state mandates including Michigan's Public Act 132, which took effect in January 2025. Chore-Time's primary competitor, Big Dutchman, has already surpassed 200 million bird placements in cage-free aviary systems. The Q1 2027 target is a direct timeline race for distributor order-fulfillment speed. If you supply into this sector, the window to be positioned as a preferred vendor before that facility goes live is now — not next year.

PECO-Amazon Transmission Deal Exposes the Electricity Capacity Charge Gap Indiana Manufacturers Are Carrying

FERC approved a transmission security agreement between PECO Energy and Amazon Data Services in November 2025 for a two-million-square-foot hyperscale campus in Falls Township, Pennsylvania. These agreements function as take-or-pay contracts — data centers post a 10-year letter of credit covering transmission upgrade costs. What they don't cover: supply and capacity costs, which account for roughly half of a typical utility bill. PECO's own spokesperson confirmed that directly.

Here's the Indiana-specific number. PJM's independent market monitor found that data centers drove PJM wholesale power costs up 54% in 2025 to $67 billion, with capacity costs rising 262% year-over-year. FERC declined to assess ratepayer harm as outside the scope of the proceeding. Indiana and Michigan Electric sits in PJM and is directly exposed to that 262% increase. NIPSCO sits in MISO, where capacity prices hit $666 per megawatt-day in the 2025/26 auction. Neither the IURC's February 2025 large-load tariff nor NIPSCO's GenCo structure addresses electricity capacity charge pass-through to existing industrial ratepayers — those frameworks cover transmission cost allocation and new-load supply. Pull your most recent bill and identify the capacity charge line item as a percentage of the total. Then ask your energy advisor what your exposure looks like if that number doubles before 2028.

Indiana Posts Second-Highest Workforce Quit Rate in the Country

Indiana ranked second in the nation for job resignations during September through December 2025, averaging 91,500 quits per month at a 2.8% resignation rate, trailing only Alaska. The BLS State JOLTS release for December 2025 confirmed Indiana posted the largest single-month increase in quits of any state — up 20,000 month-over-month — and the largest increase in total separations, up 24,000.

When quits and involuntary separations accelerate together, you're looking at structural dislocation, not a confident workforce upgrading jobs uniformly. Indiana's concentration in RV, auto supply, and durable goods manufacturing makes those sectors the highest-risk. For reference: Georgia fell 30,000 quits and Tennessee fell 27,000 in the same month. SK Hynix's CHIPS Act-backed chip packaging facility in West Lafayette — targeting more than 1,000 high-wage jobs by second-half 2028 — is entering this labor market at a 1.0 worker-per-opening ratio. At even conservative replacement cost estimates, monthly churn at this scale is a recurring P&L hit. Quantify it for your own facility. Your retention program is a direct operational cost center — and the window to act before that competition arrives is closing.

Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: What percentage of my Indiana electricity bill is the capacity charge?
A: On a typical Indiana commercial or industrial bill, supply and capacity costs together account for roughly half of the total. The capacity charge is a distinct line item — pull your most recent bill, identify it specifically, and establish that number as a baseline before your next conversation with an energy advisor. That's the figure you need to stress-test against further increases.

Q: How do PJM and MISO capacity cost increases affect Indiana manufacturers differently?
A: I&M customers in PJM are directly exposed to the 262% year-over-year capacity cost increase that PJM's independent market monitor attributed to data center load growth in 2025. NIPSCO customers in MISO face a separate but equally significant exposure — MISO capacity prices hit $666 per megawatt-day in the 2025/26 auction. The mechanism is different by grid; the cost pressure is not.

Q: What should I do right now about Indiana's workforce resignation rate?
A: Audit your voluntary turnover rate against what Georgia and Tennessee manufacturers are offering in wage structure and scheduling, and identify the single highest-leverage retention change you can make before SK Hynix begins competing for the same workers in the West Lafayette market by late 2028. Monthly churn at Indiana's current scale is a quantifiable P&L line — treat it as one.

For a deeper look at how electricity capacity charges appear on Indiana C&I bills and what levers you have to manage exposure, download the TEG Energy Decision Blueprint at TacticalEnergyGroup.com.

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