What Sullivan County Got Right About Data Centers
Submitted by Savannah Kerstiens, President of Reliable Energy, Inc.
As President of Reliable Energy, Inc, an association focused on a reliable and affordable power grid for Indiana, I track energy policy decisions, the ones that lower bills and the ones that don’t. If I thought Heartland Industrial Park would hurt Sullivan County residents or strain the electric grid, this op-ed would look very different.
A project this size raises a natural question: who pays?
Here’s the answer, straight from the people responsible. Potentia is funding 100% of the power infrastructure and upgrades itself. WIN Energy REMC, the regional electric cooperative, has stated that residential customers will see no rate increases and no service charges as a result of this project. That’s not a promise from a politician. It’s a commitment from the utility that serves you.
Potentia is a Texas-based infrastructure developer whose entire business model is built around reliable power. It chose Sullivan County because the Wabash Valley has the backbone a project this size demands, and that’s a compliment worth saying out loud. Unlike many large developments, Potentia is taking no tax abatements. The full assessed value of this campus goes to local schools and services from day one. The company has also committed $50 million in community enhancement payments and $4.5 million to local charities, including the Brown Baggers School Food Program, and is donating 15 acres for a new fire station. This isn’t a company extracting value from Sullivan County. It’s one investing in it.
There’s also a deeper reason not to worry about rates. A $65 billion campus that needs electricity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is the best possible neighbor for an electric grid built to run around the clock. The fixed costs of that infrastructure get shared across a much larger base, which is exactly why utilities are pointing to projects like this as a reason rates can fall, not rise.
The proof is already showing up elsewhere in Indiana. Governor Braun signed President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge in July, joining 22 other governors in committing that data center developers must cover 100% of their own power and infrastructure costs, no exceptions, no cost-shifting to families. Indiana Michigan Power, which serves Hoosiers in Northeast Indiana, signed the same pledge. And they’re already delivering on it. I&M just filed one of the largest base rate reduction plans in the country, saving the average residential customer about $100 a year, with a three-year rate freeze on top of it. Their own announcement says it plainly: the rate cut is made possible by “load growth and increased revenue from large customers including data centers.”
Nearly a third of Indiana’s counties have moved to pause or restrict data centers, and I understand why. When a project this size shows up, the instinct is to slow down and protect what you have. Sullivan County did something harder. It asked what the community would be giving up by saying no, and then it did the work to make sure residents were protected before saying yes. That is not a county that got lucky. That is a county that got it right.
