"Northern Indiana Public Service Co. says the spinoff is needed to meet surging power demand. Others say it’s an excuse to bypass regulations that protect consumers."
"An Indiana utility has come up with an unusual plan for meeting growing power demand from data centers.
Northern Indiana Public Service Co. is launching a spinoff company, GenCo, that is exempt from many of the regulatory proceedings typically required before power plants can be built in the state. The utility, also known as NIPSCO, says that this will allow the new entity to quickly provide the copious amounts of energy that data centers need without pushing excessive costs onto other consumers.
But the move is raising alarm bells for watchdog groups and other critics, who argue that rather than protect consumers, the plan will mainly enrich the utility’s parent company while interfering with market competition and undercutting important regulatory safeguards. It could also set back the state’s clean-energy transition, advocates say.
As regulators around the country wrestle with how to get a lot of power online quickly to serve “hyperscaler” AI data centers, other utilities may be looking at NIPSCO’s “unique arrangement” as “a model for how to maximize profits while meeting new data-center demand,” said Emily Piontek, a regulatory associate at the nonprofit Clean Grid Alliance."
Kari Lydersen reports for Canary Media October 28, 2025.
SEE ALSO:
"‘Rapid Explosion’ of Data Centers Causes Planning Struggles in Texas" (Inside Climate News)
"Data Center Developer Takes a Small Michigan Farming Community to Court" (Inside Climate News)
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