AES Indiana seeks bids for new gas power units to meet needs of ‘large-scale customers’

The AES Indiana Petersburg location is one possible site for the construction of new natural gas power units. (IBJ file photo)

AES Indiana is seeking bids to build one or more combined cycle gas turbine units, planned to be operational between 2030 and 2032, according to a request for proposal filed by the utility.

AES Indiana said the new units, often called CCGT units for short, are part of its planning to meet the potential needs of the addition of unidentified “large-scale customers” to its grid. According to the request for proposals, or RFP, the planned locations for the new power units are existing AES Indiana plants at Petersburg in Pike County, Eagle Valley in Martinsville, or Harding Street in Indianapolis.

A CCGT until combines a natural gas-fired turbine and a steam turbine to produce electricity. According to AES Indiana, CCGT units produce power “more efficiently and with fewer environmental emissions than other thermal energy options available in Indiana today.” According to the RFP, total net power output would be 600 to 800 megawatts.

While the utility company did not identify details about the large-scale customers, consumer advocate Kerwin Olson said the need for such power points to a proposed new data center in Indianapolis’ Franklin Township.

An unidentified tech company has proposed a major data center campus on a 468-acre site along South Post Road on the far-southeast side of the city.

“I think those are easy dots to connect,” said Olson, executive director of consumer group Citizens Action Coalition.

In a written statement sent to IBJ, the utility company said the call-out is an extension of a previous all-energy-source request.

“The purpose of the natural gas RFP is to collect data that may inform gas generation pricing,” the company said, “the issuance of an RFP is not a commitment to build generation. The need for future generation will be evaluated in AES Indiana’s (Integrated Resource Plan) or other possible regulatory filings.”

However, AES Indiana has suspended its 2025 Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP, process, which began with a public meeting in January. The second meeting was planned for late March or early April, but was postponed as the General Assembly considered measures relevant to utility developments. AES pointed to House Enrolled Act 1007, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike Braun, created a tax credit for expenses in the manufacturing of a small modular nuclear reactor.

Details are not yet publicly available for its rescheduled date, according to AES.

“With the passing of HEA 1007, AES Indiana is currently evaluating the 2025 IRP in conjunction with other resource planning activities and possible regulatory filings,” AES said in its written statement.

Olson, of the Citizens Action Coalition, said he prefers to see “all-source” RFPs, not proposals that are limited to one energy source, in this case natural gas.

“If there’s a need for power, whether that be capacity or energy or both, and a utility wants to meet that need, then we think an RFP should say: ‘We need X amount of energy by this data. How can you get it to us?’” he said.

The request for proposals was issued on May 21, with a June 6 deadline. AES Indiana said it plans to file with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on Oct. 31.

AES Indiana provides electricity to more than 520,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in a 528-square-mile area in and around Indianapolis.

Other Indiana utilities are also investing in natural gas.

In February, Duke Energy Indiana filed a petition with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission asking for approval to build two new natural gas-fired units with upgraded transmission lines costing an estimated $3.3 billion at its existing Cayuga Generating Station in Vermillion County. The Plainfield-based utility said the project will coincide with the retirement of the almost 60-year-old coal-fired units at Cayuga.