NIPSCO's Schahfer Coal Plant Costs Indiana Manufacturers as Mrvan Targets DOE Lifeline Orders

U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan introduced the Utility Affordability and Transparency Act, which would stop the Department of Energy from using emergency orders to keep NIPSCO's R.M. Schahfer plant and CenterPoint's F.B. Culley plant running past their scheduled retirements, and would require DOE cost estimates plus a transparent line item on customer bills. An Earthjustice-commissioned analysis found the first three months of the extensions cost utilities $56 million. The plants are now in their tenth month of extensions, and NIPSCO customers already carry the highest average electric bills in a 2025 statewide survey.

NIPSCO has filed FERC Docket EL2636 asking to recover Schahfer costs across its entire 11-state MISO footprint, not just Indiana, with total retention costs projected to top $1 billion through 2027. The Schahfer units were also offline for repairs for months this year, meaning the DOE order was requiring power from a plant that could not physically produce it, the same defect the D.C. Circuit cited last month when it struck down a parallel order for Michigan's Campbell plant.