Indiana Michigan Power filed with the IURC on July 20 for approval to build a 1,520-megawatt natural gas combined cycle plant at its Rockport site in Spencer County — and the capital cost is not in the public filing. That makes three Indiana utilities now pursuing major new gas generation on overlapping schedules, which means the Indiana gas plant buildout puts every commercial and industrial operator in the state downstream of cost-recovery decisions that get settled in IURC proceedings beginning in early 2027.

I&M Files for 1,520 MW at Rockport Without a Public Capital Number

I&M requested a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the Rockport Energy Center, sited at the existing Rockport Generating Station along the Ohio River. It replaces two 1,300-MW Babcock & Wilcox coal units headed for full retirement by the end of 2028. The utility anticipates an IURC decision in early 2027, construction starting in 2027, and commercial operation in summer 2030. Roughly 1,200 construction jobs, 30 to 40 permanent operational roles — against 171 people currently employed at the site.

I&M states the investment is already contemplated inside its upcoming rate reduction filing and non-fuel rate freeze, and therefore will not affect its plans to reduce customer rates. The capital figure supporting that claim has not been disclosed. Applying BNEF's national combined-cycle benchmark of roughly $2,157 per kilowatt to 1,520 MW implies somewhere in the range of $3.2 to $3.5 billion, though a brownfield site with existing 765-kV interconnection and river water access could come in under that. The point is that the real number is not public, and intervenors are the ones likely to pry it loose.

There is a second unresolved item at the same address: AEP's Future Ready plan contemplates approximately 600 MW of Small Modular Reactor capacity at Rockport by 2037, and AEP applied in January 2025 for federal support toward an Early Site Permit there. A 1,520-MW gas plant and an SMR do not co-site cleanly. If you are in I&M territory, get someone running your electricity cost model against a scenario where a $3-billion-plus figure enters the record before the rate-freeze framing is settled.

The Indiana Gas Plant Buildout Now Spans Three Utilities and 5.6 Gigawatts

Rockport is not standing alone. Duke Energy Indiana broke ground in May 2026 on the 1,476-MW Cayuga Energy Complex in Vermillion County, priced at $3.3 billion. NIPSCO is pursuing a 2,300-MW plant through a ring-fenced subsidiary, NIPSCO Generation LLC, structured specifically to serve data centers. Citizens Action Coalition puts the combined total at 5.6 gigawatts of new gas-fired capacity by 2030 and 7.8 gigawatts by 2035.

The demand behind those filings is contractual. I&M's large-load tariff agreements with Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft were filed with the IURC in November 2024 and require minimum 12-year commitments with a five-year ramp. Regulatory analysis puts I&M's Indiana peak at roughly 2,800 MW in 2024 growing past 7,000 MW by 2030.

Two constraints deserve your attention. First, GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are the primary large-frame turbine suppliers, and their manufacturing slots are reportedly committed through 2030 — a schedule slip at Rockport or Cayuga cannot be recovered by substituting equipment. Second, I&M is the only Indiana utility inside PJM, and PJM capacity auction costs came in $9.3 billion higher in the 2025–26 cycle per the Independent Market Monitor. Those costs reach industrial customers years before any of this generation is online. Model that exposure this quarter, not in 2029.

Jeffersonville's 300-Ton Crane Resets Ohio River Heavy-Lift Economics

Ports of Indiana announced on July 7 a $25 million federal BUILD grant — the largest award in the authority's 65-year history — funding a $32 million expansion at Jeffersonville in Clark County. The plan installs a 300-ton crane system, a 6,500-square-foot dock, and a 22,000-square-foot warehouse, raising lift capacity from 35 tons to 300 tons, doubling barge-rail transloading, and creating the port's first general cargo facility outside the floodplain. Completion is expected in 2028. The site connects to CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Anacostia's Louisville & Indiana Railroad.

The nearest comparable heavy-lift terminal on the Ohio River corridor, Cincinnati's public landing, operates at a 150-ton fixed crane limit. From 2028 forward, Jeffersonville becomes the regional ceiling for transformers, wind components, and oversized industrial machinery. If you are currently routing heavy components by permitted wide-load highway hauls, quantify what share of that freight could move to barge-rail and what it does to your landed cost. Worth noting: the $7 million non-federal match has not been sourced publicly. If it surfaces as a private tenant volume commitment, the expansion is already backed by contracted demand nobody has named.

Plainfield and Georgetown: Two Life-Sciences Anchors, Two Different Clocks

We covered Boston Scientific's $138 million Plainfield build and its FDA establishment registration angle back in June. The supplier-side consequence is the part still open: if Plainfield earns that registration, kit assembly and labeling work can migrate there from the Spencer campus 40 miles away without a new public announcement — which creates incremental demand for Indiana contract manufacturers and precision suppliers already serving the endoscopy and urology scope lines. Watch for the FDA registration filing within 12 to 24 months of groundbreaking, and audit whether your quality documentation infrastructure would survive that customer's qualification process.

Redwire cut the ribbon July 20 on a 30,000-square-foot space research and manufacturing facility at the Novaparke campus in Georgetown, Floyd County — $8.9 million plus $6.7 million in equipment, including a payload operations control center and a partnership with Eli Lilly on microgravity pharmaceutical crystal growth. Apply a different discount rate to this one. The program is tethered to the International Space Station, which is targeted for decommissioning in 2030, and Redwire has not publicly announced contracts with a successor station. If you are weighing supplier or co-location relationships on Novaparke's remaining 31 undeveloped acres, the anchor tenant's mission architecture has an unresolved date attached to it.

Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: How does the Indiana gas plant buildout reach my electricity bill before 2030?
A: Through capacity costs and rate proceedings, not through the plants themselves. PJM capacity auction costs rose $9.3 billion in the 2025–26 cycle and flow through to industrial customers now, while the capital recovery for Rockport, Cayuga, and NIPSCO's GenCo plant gets decided in IURC dockets starting in early 2027.

Q: Should we be modeling I&M's undisclosed Rockport capital cost?
A: Yes, as a scenario rather than a forecast. I&M has not published a capital figure, and national benchmarks imply roughly $3.2 to $3.5 billion for 1,520 MW — run your electricity cost model against a case where a number in that range enters the IURC record and tests the current non-fuel rate freeze framing.

Q: What does the Jeffersonville port expansion change for our inbound freight?
A: From 2028, Jeffersonville's 300-ton crane doubles the heavy-lift ceiling of the nearest Ohio River comparable, making barge-rail viable for transformers, structural steel, and oversized machinery you currently move by permitted highway haul. Pull your heavy-haul permit history and calculate what percentage of those loads could route through Clark County instead.

For more on how Indiana medical device capital investment reaches the regional supplier base, read our earlier breakdown of the Boston Scientific Plainfield facility and what it means for Indiana device suppliers.

If you want a structured way to stress-test your facility's electricity cost exposure against the buildout and capacity cost increases described above, download the TEG Energy Decision Blueprint.

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