AES Indiana, a subsidiary of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES), filed a petition for a regulatory rate review request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) to seek a rate increase to cover the rising operational costs and needs associated with serving its customers safely and reliably. This is the company's first base rate increase request in five years (last filed in 2017) and comes as a result of inflationary impacts on operations and maintenance expenses, investments in reliability and resiliency improvements, and enhancements to customer systems.

"AES Indiana continues to focus on providing safe, reliable, and sustainable energy solutions, while balancing the need to keep energy costs reasonable," said Kristina Lund, AES Indiana President and CEO. "Through this rate review request, we are making meaningful changes and improvements that will provide significant benefits to our customers, including new technology offerings and investments in our infrastructure that will provide a better overall experience for our customers."

AES Indiana's request also seeks recovery of increased costs to support its vegetation management plan, which covers the removal of overhang and tree trimming in AES Indiana's service territory. Trees and branches ("vegetation") interfering with overhead lines is the #1 cause of power outages for AES Indiana's customers, accounting for 30% of outages in AES Indiana's service territory last year.

In 2020, AES Indiana received approval of its Transmission, Distribution and Storage system Improvement Charge (TDSIC) plan. Consistent with state law, AES Indiana must file to recover a portion of these costs before the end of the plan's lifespan. This regulatory rate review fulfills that requirement.

If new rates are approved, an AES Indiana residential customer, one using 1,000 kWh per month, will see an increase of approximately $17 or 13% compared to current base rates. If approved by the IURC, new rates are anticipated to go into effect the summer of 2024. AES Indiana has historically had the lowest rates among investor-owned utilities in Indiana and expects to remain among the lowest residential rates if the proposed rates are approved.

Customers can use AES Indiana's bill calculator to estimate and plan for the impact on their bill based on expected electricity usage and the new base rates.

With the filing, the IURC will review the request and solicit input from various stakeholder groups and customers. On average, the process takes approximately 10-12 months for the IURC to evaluate the case and reach a decision. To learn more about AES Indiana's regulatory rate review, visit aesindiana.com/rate-review.