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.