AES Indiana charts smarter greener future

AES Indiana, a subsidiary of The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES), filed its 2022 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission today. This 20-year outlook charts a path to a smarter, greener energy future for the Indiana investor-owned utility and its customers through balanced and responsible transitions to low-carbon sources of energy.

“The 2022 IRP puts reliability at its core, outlining actionable energy plans to meet our customers’ needs of reliability, affordability and sustainability,” said AES Indiana President and CEO Kristina Lund. “This meaningful, objective look at our shared energy future reflects extensive analysis and a robust stakeholder engagement process to ensure our resource decisions are inclusive and economical. Our plan reduces our carbon dioxide emissions per hour of electricity generated by two-thirds from 2018 to 2030, while also saving our customers hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years.”

Preferred resource portfolio and short-term action plan

AES Indiana generates more than 3600 megawatts (MW) of power annually to meet customer demand. The 2022 IRP determined that the most resilient and least-cost portfolio to serve AES Indiana’s more than 512,000 customers today and for the next 20 years is a generation strategy that includes:

• Addition of up to 1,300 MW of renewables by 2027 including wind, solar and battery energy storage.
• Conversion of two generation units in Petersburg from coal to natural gas in 2025 using an existing pipeline on site. After these conversions are completed, AES Indiana will no longer burn coal to generate energy.
• Monitoring emerging technologies, such as green hydrogen, small modular reactors, and carbon capture, for inclusion in future planning including the next IRP in 2025.

The 2022 IRP shows that a combination of natural gas and renewable energy resources are vital for reliability in all seasons and at peak usage during the energy transition. By converting the Petersburg facility to natural gas, AES Indiana utilizes the many strengths and capabilities of existing infrastructure to drive customer value, continue community commitments and maximize usage of current land, interconnection, pipelines and labor force.

The greatest benefits to customers include:

• Affordability: The 2022 IRP is projected to save AES Indiana customers more than $240 million over 20 years, compared to its status quo operations.
• Reliability: This short-term action plan and preferred portfolio result in the highest reliability score of the IRP base case generation strategies.
• Sustainability: The modeling estimates a 68% reduction in carbon intensity in 2030, compared to 2018 levels, exceeding the target established by the City of Indianapolis.

When evaluated side by side with multiple generation strategies in a range of future scenarios, this portfolio provided the highest scores for reliability, lowest cost to customers and a significant reduction in climate impact. IRP modeling estimates the costs to customers from the preferred resource portfolio will be approximately $240 million lower in cost relative to the status quo portfolio.

By 2030, AES Indiana projects a 68% reduction in CO2 emission compared to 2018 levels. In the next 20 years, AES Indiana will move toward a portfolio that is supported 85 to 90% from renewable energy generation as it increases solar, wind and storage resources.

 

Percentage of energy generated by resource type

 

All resource additions are subject to their own regulatory approval processes. Replacement resources will be sourced through all-source Request for Proposals (RFPs) and evaluated every three years during future IRP processes to determine current pricing and reevaluate value to ensure the most reliable, resilient and cost-effective solutions are pursued.

Read the 2022 IRP

The full 2022 IRP filed with the IURC and a shorter, non-technical summary are available at aesindiana.com/integrated-resource-plan.

______________

About AES Indiana

AES Indiana, an AES Company, provides retail electric service to more than 500,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Indianapolis, as well as portions of other Central Indiana communities surrounding Marion County. During its long history, AES Indiana has supplied its customers with some of the lowest-cost, most reliable power in the country. For more information about the company, please Connect with AES Indiana on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. For more information about how AES Indiana is accelerating the future of energy, visit aesindiana.com/hellofuture.

 

Download high-resolution photos, fact sheets and infographics.