The IURC has approved a settlement agreement among the OUCC, industrial customers, the Citizens Action Coalition, and AES Indiana that ensures $21 million will not be passed on to customers.
The final order addresses two outages that resulted in Eagle Valley being offline for approximately 11 months (from April 2021 until March 2022). Through filings with the Commission, AES Indiana had sought to recover about $41.5 million in purchased power costs, necessitated by Eagle Valley’s unavailability.
The newly approved agreement includes the following consumer savings and ratepayer protections:
- Just over half of the purchased power costs ($21 million) will not be recovered through rates.
- The remaining $20.5 million will be recovered over a two-year period rather than the one-year period the utility had requested, reducing the impact on monthly customer bills.
- Ratepayers will receive a $6.8 million credit over a three-month period.
- AES Indiana agrees to not seek a return on any capital investment incurred to repair and replace damaged equipment as a result of the extended outages.
The full case file is available from the IURC's electronic document system including the OUCC's settlement testimony.
1-18-23