Manufacturing News
October 26, 2026
October 26, 2026 · Morgan County · Story 3 of 5
IURC Approves AES's $1.3 Billion Plan to Power Google's Monrovia Data Center
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission voted unanimously on October 7 to approve AES Indiana's plan for solar, battery storage and transmission lines to serve a 390-megawatt Google data center in Monrovia, Morgan County. It is the first project filed under Indiana's 2025 law requiring large electricity users to cover 80% of the costs assigned to them. The total project runs $737.3 million. Google pays $32.3 million directly for connection facilities, while $73.8 million in network upgrades go into AES's rate base, a cost split Citizens Action Coalition's Ben Inskeep opposed in testimony.
Indiana is now running three different experiments on how a utility pays for a hyperscaler at the same time. AES built this one on regulated solar and storage. Duke Energy Indiana struck a wholesale contract for Meta's Jeffersonville data center. NIPSCO's GenCo affiliate is lining up as much as 3 gigawatts for Amazon in the northern part of the state. Whichever cost-allocation model survives scrutiny here becomes the template for every data center that follows. And this approval is not separate from the rate case above: the same sworn-testimony timeline Citizens Action Coalition is raising in the rehearing could still unwind the $73.8 million in socialized upgrade costs this order just approved. For the mechanics of how those costs get split, see our guide to utility cost allocation for data centers.
- Impact
- Indiana is now a live test lab for three competing utility-hyperscaler models: AES's regulated solar-plus-storage build for Google, Duke Energy Indiana's wholesale contract for Meta's Jeffersonville data center, and NIPSCO's GenCo affiliate supplying up to 3 GW to Amazon in northern Indiana, meaning the cost-allocation precedent set here will shape how every future tech campus gets built statewide. The deeper issue is that this approval and the AES rate case (Story 2) are the same dispute: CAC's sworn-testimony timeline allegation means the $73.8M in socialized upgrade costs could still get unwound in the pending rehearing.
- Watch
- The Jan. 12, 2027 new-evidence deadline in the rate rehearing and a possible full hearing March 11, 2027 at the PNC Center, which could retroactively affect this approval's cost allocation.
- For the huddle
As AES, Duke and NIPSCO each lock up hyperscaler contracts with different cost-allocation structures, which model leaves manufacturers least exposed to socialized grid-upgrade costs the next time a data center lands near our facility?
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
Earlier coverage
From the brief, October 26, 2026
- Nucor's $105 Million Crawfordsville Expansion
- AES Indiana's Rate Increase Rehearing Pushes to March While Bills Keep Rising
- IURC Approves AES's $1.3 Billion Plan to Power Google's Monrovia Data Center
- Amazon, AEP and X-energy Explore a 960-Megawatt Nuclear Plant in Sullivan County
- Amazon's $100 Million Robotics Manufacturing Plant Lands in Greenwood
This story
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