NIPSCO Schahfer: $174,000 Per Day, Both Units Offline

The Department of Energy has issued a third consecutive 90-day Section 202(c) emergency order requiring NIPSCO's R.M. Schahfer Generating Station in Jasper County and CenterPoint's F.B. Culley plant in Warrick County to remain operational through September 19. Both plants were scheduled to retire in 2025. Both utilities will comply.

The problem embedded in that compliance: both Schahfer coal units are currently offline for repairs. NIPSCO's own president acknowledged at the December 2025 IURC Winter Reliability Forum that Unit 18 requires a full rebuild, a six-month-or-longer timeline. The estimated cost to ratepayers is $174,000 per day for Schahfer, and NIPSCO has not yet filed itemized expenses with FERC. The final number could be higher once those filings land.

The structural issue runs deeper than the daily cost. The DOE orders invoke a capacity emergency, but the same order language bars these units from counting as capacity resources in MISO's Planning Resource Auction. MISO's own spokesperson confirmed in writing that the Planning Resource Auction found adequate resources to meet projected demand without these units. The practical result: ratepayers across all 11 MISO states are funding capacity that neither the market nor the order itself treats as dispatchable.

The case to watch is the D.C. Circuit ruling on the Consumers Energy J.H. Campbell plant in Michigan, oral arguments concluded in May, decision expected within months. If the court rules against DOE, it could retroactively invalidate the Indiana orders and trigger a FERC unwinding of already-approved cost allocations. Audit your MISO capacity charge exposure before that ruling lands, not after.