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Manufacturing NewsTEG DailyOctober 26, 2026

October 26, 2026 · Marion County · Story 2 of 5

AES Indiana's Rate Increase Rehearing Pushes to March While Bills Keep Rising

Daniel BurkePublished every day

AES Indiana, the state's consumer counselor, Citizens Action Coalition, the city of Indianapolis and industrial customers have agreed to a one-day rehearing in early March on AES's $71 million rate increase, which the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved 3-1 in June before Governor Mike Braun directed the counselor's office to seek a second look. None of that is stopping the bill from rising. Phase one took effect July 27 and added less than a dollar a month for a 1,000 kilowatt-hour household. Phase two in January adds about $8.50 a month, because the consumer counselor never asked the commission to pause the increase while the case is reheard.

The more consequential allegation in this fight has gotten less attention than the political fallout around a fired commissioner. Citizens Action Coalition says AES signed its first power agreement with Google for the Monrovia data center more than a week before filing rebuttal testimony in this same rate case, and never went back to correct the sworn record. That is a procedural defect, and if the rehearing finds the record was incomplete, the fix could shift more of the cost burden onto industrial accounts rather than residential ratepayers. This fight has been building for weeks, see our earlier coverage of AES Indiana's BlackRock buyout reaching FERC alongside the pending rate case.

Impact
The political drama over Commissioner Andy Zay's firing is overshadowing the more consequential allegation: Citizens Action Coalition says AES signed its first Google Monrovia data-center agreement more than a week before filing rebuttal testimony in this same rate case, and never corrected the sworn record. That's a procedural defect, not a political one, and it means the rehearing could surface whether the rate case was built on an incomplete record just as industrial customers who originally agreed to the deal are now contesting it.
Watch
The one-day rehearing scheduled for early March 2027, and whether CAC's sworn-testimony timeline becomes part of the formal record.
For the huddle

If the rehearing finds AES failed to disclose the Google contract during the rate case, could the cost-allocation fix shift more of that burden onto industrial accounts like ours instead of residential ratepayers?

Your January bill goes up about $8.50 a month for a typical 1,000 kilowatt-hour household regardless of the March rehearing, and the Monrovia data center approval shows regulators are willing to let $73.8 million in grid upgrade costs land in AES's rate base rather than fully on the data center. Watch whether that cost-allocation pattern repeats as more hyperscaler deals get filed.

Sources

  1. Indiana challenges AES $71M rate hike as bigger power bills hit before rehearing · thecooldown.com

Earlier coverage

From the brief, October 26, 2026

  1. Nucor's $105 Million Crawfordsville Expansion
  2. AES Indiana's Rate Increase Rehearing Pushes to March While Bills Keep Rising
  3. IURC Approves AES's $1.3 Billion Plan to Power Google's Monrovia Data Center
  4. Amazon, AEP and X-energy Explore a 960-Megawatt Nuclear Plant in Sullivan County
  5. Amazon's $100 Million Robotics Manufacturing Plant Lands in Greenwood

The whole day’s brief →

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