Indiana Steel, Coal, and Battery Crisis | TEG Daily September 20, 2026

Four developments dropped this week that don't sit in isolation, they sit on top of each other. A $59 million steel expansion in DeKalb County that changes the competitive math for Midwest grating procurement. A December 18 legal deadline tied to coal plants that Indiana ratepayers are already funding whether those plants are running or not. A 765-kilovolt transmission line public comment window closing October 9 that determines whether northeast Indiana facilities shape the route or contest it after the fact. And a $7.54 billion federal loan hanging over Kokomo's battery sector while Samsung SDI quietly converts an auto asset into a utility one. This is your TEG Daily Indiana manufacturing news brief for September 20, 2026.

Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: What does the December 18 NIPSCO Schahfer deadline mean for Indiana manufacturers' electricity bills?

A: The Trump administration's emergency orders keeping the Schahfer and Culley coal plants online run through December 18, and their operating costs are being spread across all MISO-member state ratepayers (including Indiana manufacturers) under a 2025 FERC cost-sharing order. Schahfer Unit 14 has been offline for maintenance since February 2026, meaning Indiana ratepayers have been absorbing those cost allocations without receiving the generation. Your procurement team should model electricity cost exposure across the range of outcomes before that deadline, not after.

Q: How do I know if my northeast Indiana facility is inside the I&M 765kV transmission corridor?

A: The Lulu-Sorenson right-of-way corridor is 180 to 200 feet wide and runs roughly 75 miles from Huntington County through DeKalb, Whitley, and Steuben counties to the Indiana-Michigan state line. No final route has been selected, which means now (before October 9) is the window to request corridor maps from Indiana Michigan Power and submit a public comment if your facility, land, or planned expansion is near the proposed alignment. After the route is filed with the IURC, your options shift from shaping the route to formally contesting it.

Q: What happens to Indiana battery jobs if the Samsung SDI DOE loan restructuring fails?

A: The StarPlus Energy joint venture in Kokomo was built around Stellantis EV cell demand that no longer exists at the projected volumes. Samsung SDI is now pivoting the asset toward LFP chemistry for grid storage, but the $7.54 billion DOE loan is structured around the original EV production profile. If the restructuring does not close (or closes on terms that reduce facility scale) nearly 7,000 Indiana battery jobs projected by 2030 are at risk. Any supply chain, workforce pipeline, or capital plan tied to Kokomo battery production should be pressure-tested against an LFP grid-storage volume profile, not the original EV cell forecast.

Three Actions for This Week

Indiana's grid infrastructure is being rebuilt at the transmission layer, the generation layer, and the factory floor: all at the same time, all under contested conditions, all with hard deadlines. Here is where to focus:

1. Northeast Indiana facilities and landowners: engage before October 9. Attend the I&M open house in Fort Wayne (September 23) or Angola (September 24), or submit a written comment before the October 9 close. Identify whether your facility or land is inside the Lulu-Sorenson corridor before the route is filed with the IURC.

2. Have your energy procurement team model the December 18 range now. The plausible outcomes for the Schahfer and Culley orders span a wide cost band. That analysis should be on someone's desk before the deadline, not the week after. For background on how MISO cost allocations flow through to your Indiana electricity bill, the fuel adjustment charges explainer for Indiana C&I operators walks through the mechanics.

3. Pressure-test any Kokomo battery assumptions against LFP grid-storage volumes. If your supply chain, workforce pipeline, or capital plan has any connection to the StarPlus Energy facility, the production profile your assumptions are built on (EV cell volume) is no longer the operative scenario.

Daniel Burke is CEO of Tactical Energy Group, an Indiana-based energy management technology provider. TEG Daily tracks the developments that drive up the cost and complexity of making things in Indiana.