Our previous article regarding NIPSCO price increases allowed consumers to find out who voted for these Indiana bills before going to the ballot box in the November 2026 election. We found another article that explains the facts from a different angle, written by a local resident, David Allen Roy, who has quite a following on Facebook. David uncovered what has been buried underneath acronyms, regulatory proceedings and legislation is something every NIPSCO customer deserves to understand in plain English. With permission, here’s these increases explained by David . . . 

     Indiana has a system called TDSIC, which stands for Transmission, Distribution and Storage System Improvement Charge. An Indiana regulated utility can submit a five-to-seven-year infrastructure plan to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, and after the Commission approves eligible projects and costs, the utility can seek periodic increases in customer rates as those investments are made. Indiana’s own consumer advocate explains that 80% of approved capital expenditures and TDSIC costs can be recovered through the tracker, while the remaining 20% is deferred until the utility’s next general rate case.

     That last sentence matters because the 80/20 language can sound like the utility is responsible for the other 20%. It isn’t that simple. The 80% can be recovered through incremental TDSIC rate adjustments, while the remaining 20% is deferred for recovery through base rates in the utility’s next general rate case, subject to IURC approval.

     NIPSCO isn’t merely considering whether to use this mechanism someday. The company already has an IURC-approved electric infrastructure modernization plan totaling approximately $1.64 billion through 2026, with eligible investments being recovered under Indiana’s TDSIC system.

     Now let’s go back to the Indiana Statehouse, because this is where the story starts getting a lot more interesting.

     Indiana originally created TDSIC in 2013, but House Bill 1470 expanded the law in 2019. The legislation broadened eligible infrastructure improvements, added what Indiana called “advanced technology investments,” and allowed plans to include certain projects without identifying every specific location or exact number at the beginning of the plan.

     Northwest Indiana State Representative Edmond Soliday authored HB 1470. (2019)

     Six years later, Indiana was facing a completely different energy landscape. Massive new industrial customers were requesting extraordinary amounts of electricity, and House Bill 1007 (2019) created new provisions specifically addressing large electrical loads and the generation necessary to serve them.

Ed Soliday authored HB 1007 (2019) too.

     Those enormous loads are no longer something Indiana is preparing for decades in the future. Amazon Web Services is building its massive campus near New Carlisle, additional data-center developments are moving across Northern Indiana, and NIPSCO is now planning around electrical demand measured in thousands of additional megawatts. (Including Hobart, Merrillville, Munster, Lowell, and Wheatfield) Indiana regulators have reached the point where NIPSCO’s latest rate settlement established a separate proceeding specifically addressing new large and “mega load” customers, including Data Centers.

     For the families already living here, the scale is difficult to comprehend because a megawatt doesn’t mean much when you’re opening an electric bill at the kitchen table. NIPSCO’s existing non-data-center system has been described in regulatory proceedings as carrying roughly 2,300 megawatts of projected load in 2028, while NIPSCO has evaluated scenarios involving thousands of megawatts of additional megaload growth.

     Supplying electricity on that scale requires far more than building a giant warehouse and plugging it into the wall. Generation has to exist somewhere, transmission capacity has to move that electricity across the system, substations have to handle it, and portions of the grid may need enormous investment as Northern Indiana’s electrical demands change.

       Indiana has put protections into its newer large-load law requiring qualifying customers to provide financial assurances for certain costs allocated directly to them. At the same time, the broader electrical system still operates under state laws that allow approved utility infrastructure investments to be recovered through customer rates. Determining which costs belong exclusively to a data center and which become broader system investments is therefore going to matter enormously as these projects arrive.

     Most people paying a NIPSCO bill never voted on an IURC order, never sat through a utility rate case and probably never heard the acronym TDSIC until somebody explained what it meant. They simply go to work, come home, turn on the lights and pay whatever amount appears at the bottom of the bill.

    Meanwhile, Northwest Indiana is being asked to supply electricity on a scale this region has never experienced before, and billions of dollars of infrastructure could be required to make that possible. When the people who were already living here eventually open their NIPSCO bills, exactly how much of the cost of building an electrical grid capable of powering this new data-center economy will they be paying? #NIPSCO

TO FIND OUT WHO VOTED ON THESE BILLS CLICK HERE!

It’s Election Time, Here’s the Indiana Lawmakers that Allowed NIPSCO Increases

Sue Baxter

Susie Young Baxter, CEO, has published PanoramaNOW Magazine for 31 years. Her hobbies are Camping, Boating, Hiking, Nature, Gardening and Outdoor Activities. She is an Artist, Graphic Designer, an Avid Seamstress, Dabbles in Homemade Crafts and Landscaping. Since her Father was a Health Teacher, she also likes homeopathic Health Solutions. Since blogging started over 10 years ago, PanoramaNow has been added to Newsbreak – a national news affiliate.