IURC Lets Blackstone-Backed JV Take Land for 100 Miles of Lines Serving LEAP

138 kV transmission lines in Benton County, Indiana. Photo: Patrick Finnegan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

One unwilling landowner, the developers told regulators, could stop the whole corridor. On Wednesday the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission answered that warning by clearing Wabash Valley Transmission Co. to act as a public utility — with eminent domain — on three power-line projects totaling 100 miles of new wire, two of them aimed at Boone County's LEAP research district.

The joint venture pairs Indiana's Wabash Valley Power Alliance, a generation-and-transmission cooperative, with Viridon Midcontinent, a Chicago developer backed by Blackstone, the world's largest asset manager. Indiana's Office of Utility Consumer Counselor asked the commission to draw harder lines on both ownership oversight and condemnation power. The IURC largely refused those limits, according to reporting by Joey Harris of the Indianapolis Business Journal, republished Oct. 3 by The Republic.

34 miles at 138 kV, 66 at 345 — and who holds the paper

The order green-lights Wabash Valley Transmission's ownership structure and public-utility status for three projects already under development, IBJ reported. Filings describe 34 miles of 138-kilovolt line and 66 miles of 345-kilovolt line.

Two corridors are tied to high load in Boone County's LEAP Research and Innovation District — Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace — where Eli Lilly & Co. plans a manufacturing complex and Meta Platforms, Facebook's parent, plans a data center. The third would connect northern Indiana's St. Joseph Energy Center, a 720-megawatt base-load natural-gas plant now integrated only into PJM, into the broader Midwest grid.

Wabash Valley Power Alliance Vice President Vicki Gardner told IBJ the joint venture "will help us support needed transmission projects while preserving flexibility for other future investments." Company filings argued the lines would have to be built to meet demand regardless of ownership, and that Viridon's capital-market access improves the co-op's position.

Consumer counsel wanted two brakes. Regulators kept neither.

The OUCC asked the IURC not to decline jurisdiction over financial and ownership pieces of the deal — especially what happens if Viridon exits and Wabash Valley Power Alliance members are left holding cost through rates. Wabash Valley Transmission pointed those risks to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wholesale oversight. The commission sided with declining the state jurisdiction the OUCC wanted kept, finding FERC oversight and Viridon's capital made abandonment unlikely.

Separately, the OUCC asked the IURC to deny eminent-domain authority if the commission was going to step back from project oversight. Independent power producers that build generation, the OUCC noted in filings, typically do not seek condemnation and stay under local rules — a point the counsel used to argue transmission owned this way needs tighter state control.

[Wabash Valley Transmission] could exercise eminent domain without sufficient regulatory oversight,

— OUCC filings, via Indianapolis Business Journal / The Republic

The company answered that Indiana law gives no basis to strip that tool, pointed to similar projects that received it, and cited Gov. Mike Braun's executive order on rising energy demand. Filings also warned that without condemnation, "One landowner unwilling to grant easement right could block the whole project."

Commissioners found eminent-domain statutes already protect landowners and that the tool is needed to finish linear corridors of this length. The OUCC said it was reviewing the order.

Private equity, a data-center district, and a farmer's fence line

This is not a routine co-op rebuild. It is a Blackstone-backed transmission vehicle cleared to condemn easements for lines feeding a state-branded innovation district that already markets Lilly and Meta as anchors — plus a northern gas plant seeking wider Midwest market access.

FERC still regulates wholesale sales. Indiana still writes the condemnation code the commission called "enough." What Wednesday's order did not do is keep the extra state financial leash the consumer advocate asked for, or withhold the land-taking power the developers said they need to finish 100 miles of corridor.

Boone County fence lines, LEAP's commercial tenants, and Wabash Valley member rates now share the same paper trail. The OUCC's review will show whether that trail gets a second look — or whether private equity's capital argument closes the file.

Reporting: Indianapolis Business Journal (Joey Harris), Sept. 30 / Oct. 3, 2026 via The Republic; company and OUCC filings as summarized by IBJ.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.