Sonya Crowder felt there was something terribly wrong about her electric bill. It had increased from about $240 in December 2024 to about $380 in December 2025, according to her records.
When she asked utility provider AES Indiana how they measured how much electricity she used, Crowder said she was told it was the company’s own technology. So she decided to try an experiment. Crowder said she left her home for a month.
“I unplugged everything in my home, except for my refrigerator. I thought, ‘Surely, there’s no power being drawn, nothing.’ My bill was $20 more the next month, which is actually an increase of $170 from the previous year. There’s something wrong there,” she said. “And they need to be held accountable.”
Crowder was one of more than 55 people who attended the town hall hosted by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, which is investigating the state’s five investor-owned utilities. Those utility companies serve about 2.6 million customers across the state.
Homeowners and renters at the town hall held at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis aired grievances over spikes and inconsistencies in billing, metering irregularities and challenges reaching customer service departments.
Others talked about confusion over rising charges, offering stacks of utility bills to the commissioners as evidence, and frustration at how hard it was to get ahold of a customer service representative to explain what was happening.
One resident complained she was impacted by the combined effects of two AES Indiana billing options: auto-pay and “budget billing,” which aims to make bills more consistent and predictable by averaging them over the year. But the person said, they were not charged for several months and eventually received a single bill for that time.
Members of the commission, including Chair Andy Zay, listened.
“Oddly enough, you’re not the first person that’s said that, and I find that crazy,” Zay said.
In March, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission kicked off its investigation with a public hearing. During its presentation, AES Indiana attributed bill increases to infrastructure costs, customers’ individual usage and weather.
But on Monday, some worried what the future held for their AES bills. BlackRock, a global asset manager, made a deal to take the parent company of AES Indiana private. The plan was announced in early March and has already drawn sharp criticism from some elected officials, including the state Treasurer Daniel Elliott.
The company has said that any costs related to that deal would not be passed to customers.
Residents Monday also said they did not approve of the ongoing development of data centers around Indianapolis. Data centers power the energy-intensive demand for artificial intelligence and the cloud by hosting computer servers.
Residents are concerned that the cost of this new demand and infrastructure will be passed on in their utility bills.
Zay said data centers are paying their own costs for “any increased generation they are demanding.” But some residents expressed skepticism and pushed back.
Eddie Hager left the meeting after one such interaction with Zay.
“The [IURC] needs a ratepayer board, period,” Hager said. “Not one that’s appointed by a governor, not one that’s appointed by the city council.”
Hager said he’s a Republican and blames Indiana elected officials for the situation, including Gov. Mike Braun.
Zay and two other utility commissioners were present: Bob Deig and Anthony Swinger. Commissioners David Veleta and David Ziegner were not present.
Zay said the commission was investigating because the state has heard from residents about their financial pains.
“If that balance is strained, this is something we have to pay attention to, which gets to the heart of why we’re here this evening,” he said. “In my short time as chairman, the commission has received an unprecedented number of complaints from customers who are struggling to pay their energy bills and who have expressed frustration and confusion about what those bills entail.”
At least five local Democratic state lawmakers gave opening remarks, including Reps. Chris Campbell, Cherrish Pryor, Gregory Porter, and Sens. La Keisha Jackson and Greg Taylor.
Pryor told WFYI she plans to introduce legislation next session that would prevent the sale of utility companies without IURC approval.
“People are feeling like they are prisoners of the utility companies,” Pryor said. “And people have reached a point where they are not just mad, they’re pissed off, and if legislators don’t wake up and see [it] as a problem, people are going to remind them that there’s a problem.”
Several attendees offered possible solutions to the IURC, many of which would have to be changed in state law by the legislature, including eliminating the sales tax on customers’ utility bills.
The IURC will host a final listening session in Terre Haute on Wednesday to hear from customers.
Zay said that the commission will “carefully study” the variety of evidence collected during the investigation and will release a report with recommendations in the coming months.
Contact WFYI Data Journalist Zak Cassel at zcassel@wfyi.org
