NiSource has received approval from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) in the US for several agreements related to its partnership with Amazon on new data centre projects.
The authorisations include a settlement agreement, a special contract with Amazon, and a power purchase agreement.
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In another decision, the IURC also approved NiSource’s proposed generation resources, such as combined-cycle gas turbines and battery energy storage systems.
According to NiSource, these regulatory decisions are expected to support its wider data centre strategy by facilitating the integration of large new electric loads into its system.
The company estimates that this approach could result in around $1.4bn in savings for existing NIPSCO customers.
Under the approved plan, infrastructure requirements for data centre customers will be financed by those customers, rather than the existing customer base.
NiSource stated that this arrangement is aimed at supporting affordability and reliability for NIPSCO’s existing electricity customers.
The agreement also commits the parties to faster procedural schedules for future deals of this kind, with the intention of enabling rapid progress on additional data centre projects.
The company expects this structure to provide a competitive advantage in speed to market and to support collaboration between utilities and technology companies in Indiana.
NiSource president and CEO Lloyd Yates said: “Our regulator’s approvals highlight the strength of our strategy and the value this approach can deliver for customers and communities.
“As data centre demand continues to grow across our service territory, we are helping to ensure that new large-load customers support the infrastructure needed to serve them while existing customers benefit through bill credits as those customers ramp.”
Prior to this, Amazon announced plans to invest $10bn to establish a new data centre campus in Montgomery County, Missouri, US.
