Hundreds of Hoosiers urge IURC to reject AES Indiana rate increase, citing affordability and service problems

Indianapolis — At a field hearing held by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on a petition by Indianapolis Power & Light Company d/b/a AES Indiana (cause no. 46258), dozens of residents, neighborhood leaders and consumer advocates urged regulators to reject a proposed rate increase that would raise residential electric bills by double-digit percentages and shift costs onto low-income households.

Speakers at the Aug. field hearing told the commission the proposal would be unaffordable and unfair. "Such a proposed rate increase on a basic service like electricity will force individuals and families to make hard choices between basic needs," said Andy Nielsen, city-county councilor for District 14, in his testimony to the commission.

The petition before the commission seeks multiple forms of relief, including a residential revenue increase that witnesses and filings characterized as a 13.45% phase-one increase for many residential customers, an increase in the monthly fixed customer charge from $17 to $20, changes to declining-block per-kilowatt-hour tiers, revised depreciation rates, accounting deferrals, and a proposed property-tax rider. The administrative law judge read the full caption of the case into the record, describing requests for revised depreciation, accounting relief, capital inclusion, rate-adjustment mechanisms and new schedules of rates, rules and regulations for…