Manufacturing News
September 30, 2026
September 30, 2026 · Statewide · Story 1 of 3
AES Indiana BlackRock Buyout Faces Bipartisan FERC Challenge
The letter to FERC Chair Laura Swett came from Warren, Democrat André Carson, and Republican Victoria Spartz. The buyers are Global Infrastructure Partners, a BlackRock subsidiary, and EQT. GIP also closed a $40 billion purchase of Aligned Data Centers, and the lawmakers argue an owner on both sides could favor grid upgrades that serve its own affiliated data centers while every other customer, including your plant, shares the bill. Two more groups have joined a formal protest at FERC: the Independent Market Monitor for PJM and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. Both are questioning whether BlackRock's existing blanket approval covers this kind of active utility ownership. AES says no deal costs will land on Indiana ratepayers, and AES Indiana stays state-regulated no matter how the ownership question resolves.
Two Regulators, Two Clocks, No Coordination
AES Indiana's $71 million rate increase doesn't get reconsidered by the IURC until March 2027. FERC review, CFIUS review, antitrust review and New York regulators are still working through the ownership deal on a separate timeline. Ohio regulators and AES shareholders have already signed off. Pull your AES Indiana load forecast and tariff class now, and if FERC attaches conditions to the deal before March, ask your industrial-customer group or counsel whether those conditions belong in the IURC rehearing.
For your morning huddle
- Q
Will the AES Indiana BlackRock buyout affect my electric rate this year?
The buyout review at FERC runs on a separate timeline from AES Indiana's rate case, so the ownership fight itself doesn't change your rate this year. Your rate exposure stays tied to the $71 million increase the IURC won't take up until March 2027.
Briefing note
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), joined by Indiana Reps. André Carson (D) and Victoria Spartz (R), sent a Sept. 28, 2026 letter to FERC Chair Laura Swett urging rejection of Global Infrastructure Partners' (a BlackRock subsidiary) and EQT's $33.4 billion take-private of AES Corp, parent of AES Indiana and AES Ohio. The deal, announced March 2, 2026 at $15/share, has already cleared AES's shareholder vote (June 26) and Ohio's PUCO, but still needs FERC, NYPSC, CFIUS and HSR sign-off before a targeted late-2026/early-2027 close.
- Impact
- GIP's parallel, already-closed $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers means BlackRock/GIP would simultaneously own AES Indiana's wires and buy the power those wires deliver to hyperscale tenants, a conflict PJM's Independent Market Monitor and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project have formally flagged in a FERC protest challenging whether BlackRock's existing Section 203 blanket authorization still covers active utility ownership at this scale. That federal fight is running on a parallel track with AES Indiana's own pending $71 million rate increase, which the IURC won't rehear until March 2027, two regulatory processes, no coordination between them.
- Watch
- FERC's ruling (or deficiency letter) on the Section 203 application, and the March 2027 IURC reconsideration hearing on AES Indiana's $71 million rate case.
From the brief, September 30, 2026
- AES Indiana BlackRock Buyout Faces Bipartisan FERC Challenge
- Patrick Industries RV Merger Talks Shadow Elkhart Product Launch
- Accu Opens Indianapolis Shop as CAFE Rollback Gives Auto Suppliers a Longer Runway
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