AES Indiana's $71M rate hike keeps billing Indy while IURC rehearing stalls into 2027

AES Indiana's Electric Building (formerly IPL) on Monument Circle. Photo by vxla / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

The calendar on the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission's AES Indiana rehearing now runs into spring 2027. The meter on more than 500,000 Indianapolis-area AES Indiana accounts is not waiting.

Phase one of a $71 million base-rate increase — less than $1 a month for a typical 1,000-kilowatt-hour household — took effect July 27, IURC spokesman Ben Gavelek told the Indiana Capital Chronicle. Phase two, which AES Indiana pegs at about $8.50 a month for that average household, remains scheduled for January. The rehearing's one-day evidentiary hearing is not set until early March.

That gap — higher bills first, full reconsideration later — is the accountability story Indianapolis ratepayers are living under while lawyers argue over Google's Monrovia data center, a BlackRock-led buyout of AES's parent company, and who sits on the commission that decides what "just and reasonable" rates mean.

June's 3-1 order still sticks while the rehearing calendar stretches

Regulators approved the increase June 17 on a 3-1 vote. Gov. Mike Braun denounced the decision and directed Utility Consumer Counselor Abby Gray to seek review. The OUCC and the Citizens Action Coalition filed separate petitions. The reconstituted commission later voted 3-1 to reconsider, Capital Chronicle reporting carried by InkFree News shows.

Rehearing does not freeze the hike. Gavelek wrote rates go into effect even with an appeal pending unless a stay is sought, and remain "subject to refund" if a court later overturns the order. "The OUCC did not request that the rate increase be stayed," he said. On Sept. 17 the parties agreed to a procedural schedule with that early-March hearing. AES had originally sought nearly $193 million when it filed in June 2025.

Google's Monrovia load and a BlackRock-led acquisition — after the record closed

CAC won rehearing on two post-record developments: Google's planned Monrovia data center and the announced BlackRock-linked acquisition of The AES Corporation. CAC said AES had denied an imminent large data-center customer, then filed Cause No. 46394 for Google infrastructure — after executing Google agreements before rebuttal testimony and before the rate-case hearing, without correcting sworn testimony.

"The Commission should not lock Indiana ratepayers into long-term rates based on an outdated picture," CAC Program Director Ben Inskeep said. The Sept. 2 order limited rehearing to evidence on the Google project and the BlackRock acquisition.

Zay's $625,000 exit and a fight over the AES vote

Former IURC chair Andy Zay — a June yes vote — told the Capital Chronicle his firing was engineered to flip the AES outcome. He settled for $625,000 while denying campaign-fund allegations and calling the probe a "fishing expedition." Braun spokesman Griffin Reid shot back that ratepayers "no longer have to guard their wallets from Andy Zay's terrible judgment." Zay said a denial of the OUCC petition had been teed up before he was fired.

Whatever the motive fight, Indianapolis customers still face phase-two dollars on the January calendar unless the commission or a court changes course first. Watchdogs get a March evidentiary date; the OUCC's choice not to seek a stay means any refund would come after the bill, not before.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.