About 20 residents and utility customers came to the Noblesville city hall on Thursday to voice complaints about rising utility bills, clean energy and the growing presence of data centers in Indiana. The listening session was one of 10 across the state — part of an Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission investigation into bill transparency and rising electricity costs amid record consumer complaints.
IURC Chair Andy Zay told WFYI the commission faces an unprecedented number of complaints. He said he expects the total complaints filed in 2026 to rival the past five years' by the end of the year.
"I think they're presently sitting on 800 open cases at the moment, and they're actually working overtime and weekends now to try and get caught up," he said.
Lisa Blair said she grew up in Clare, an unincorporated town near Noblesville across the White River from what is now a Duke Energy power plant. She has lived in Hamilton County her entire life.
“I’m getting a little tired of these rate increases and we don’t have any competition of another electric company in this area, so we’re kinda stuck what we gotta do,” she said. “If we wanna have power, we’ve gotta pay our bills."
She now lives in a condo on the other side of town and pays a fixed rate, but she said that has also increased.
Indiana utilities operate as regulated monopolies and provide service to particular areas. Blair’s only option is Duke Energy Indiana. The company services about 920,000 people in Noblesville and across the state.
“We share the commission’s focus on affordability and are committed to keeping costs as low as possible while delivering the reliable service customers expect,” said Angline Protogere, a spokesperson for Duke Energy Indiana. “We have a host of programs to help customers manage and lower their bills, and we urge anyone who needs assistance to contact us.”
The first phase of the commission’s investigation was completed last month with a public hearing where commissioners heard presentations from and questioned the investor-owned utility companies.
Those companies include Duke, AES Indiana, CenterPoint Energy Indiana, Northern Indiana Public Service Company (or NIPSCO), and Indiana Michigan Power Company. Combined, the companies provide power to about 2.6 million customers in communities across the state.
Other residents at Thursday’s session raised concerns about rates, clean energy and data centers. Big Tech companies are building massive data center developments in the state, including a $10 billion Meta project in Lebanon.
"These are coming from large corporations that are making a lot of money, and there’s absolutely no excuse why they can’t provide more benefits, either by installing solar panels on the data centers or, um, paying for the cost of extra transmission lines, or something like that,” said Monica Cannaley, a Westfield resident with a background in energy efficiency.
Zay, the IURC chair, countered that concern. “The policies are in place in Indiana to keep data centers away from the ratepayers,” he said.
The commission has previously said data centers are responsible for infrastructure costs even if they reduce their energy costs or leave the service area.
State Sen. Scott Baldwin (R-Noblesville) attended the listening session and opened the public hearing by thanking the commission for traveling to Noblesville and other communities to hear concerns from residents as affordability issues take center stage.
The commission has more listening sessions scheduled for April 13 in Gary, April 20 in Indianapolis and April 22 in Terre Haute. It is also accepting written public comments by email to IURCListeningSesssions@urc.in.gov.
The commission will release a report after the investigation is complete.
Contact WFYI data journalist Zak Cassel at zcassel@wfyi.org.
