The recent interviews of commissioner candidates before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission nominating committee revealed this: Utility bill affordability will remain elusive without major policy changes by the General Assembly and new commissioners working to establish a true balance between ratepayer and utility interests.
The nominating committee sent the names of nine finalists to the governor for consideration. He will choose from them two Republicans and one Democrat to complete the five-member commission in charge of overseeing Indiana’s investor-owned utilities and the rates they charge consumers.
Affordability was a prominent theme in the interviews, yet few candidates grasped the severe energy burden crushing low- and fixed-income families.
This burden is a direct result of utility-friendly legislation and IURC decisions not trimming fat where it is needed and instead shifting costs from big business to residential homes.
Only a few candidates highlighted energy efficiency — reducing electricity usage — as a tool to reduce bills. Just one emphasized the value of customer-owned solar and battery storage to lower systemwide costs.
The Department of Energy estimates that virtual power plants — a web-based system that controls thousands of homeowner and community solar storage systems — could save ratepayers $10 billion annually by 2030.
But the General Assembly has kneecapped the customer-owned solar program and eliminated the statewide energy efficiency program, taking away these valuable customer tools to control monthly bills and reduce systemwide costs.
It’s worth noting that both of those customer-friendly programs were put into place by former two-term Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.
A prevailing assumption among candidates was that building billions in new utility-owned power plants and infrastructure would somehow stabilize rates. This ignores reality.
Affordability and current state policy for serving data centers are mutually exclusive.
I&M’s recent case shows ratepayers could cover nearly 40% or more (not 20%) of new power plant costs to serve mega-data centers. The Braun administration’s assertion that data centers will cover 80% of their electricity costs is not a reality when state law allows for utility loopholes to dump data center costs onto other ratepayers.
Some applicants rightly expressed concern about the IURC’s reduced authority after more than a decade of utility-friendly legislation. With each piece of legislation, Indiana’s investor-owned utilities are getting closer to being unregulated monopolies.
But the IURC does have the authority to reduce returns, address unfair cost allocation favoring big industry, implement consumer protections, deny bad utility proposals and more.
Finally, there was concerning, unwavering support for small modular nuclear reactors that are not yet available and won’t be for some time — if ever.
In the meantime, utilities and reactor developers can exploit the prematurely adopted state legislation to make money without actually constructing anything, which may cost taxpayers and ratepayers tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars for nothing.
The IURC interview process exposed that utility bill affordability will be difficult to achieve absent sea change in Indiana’s energy policy.
But appointing tenacious, independent commissioners with the courage to rein in monopoly utility spending and challenge the status quo could certainly help.
Kerwin Olson is executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition.