EVANSVILLE — CenterPoint Energy planned to close unit two of the coal-powered F.B. Culley Generating Station in 2025. Instead, it’s still open and costing about $1.2 million each month to stay operational.
On Dec. 23, 2025, the Department of Energy issued an emergency order which directed CenterPoint and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. to keep unit two of the Warrick County plant available to operate. This decision came as the country and region braced for a sharp uptick in demand as more artificial intelligence data centers come online.
Since then, according to testimony given in front of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on Tuesday afternoon in Indianapolis, it has cost the utility over $1 million a month to comply with the order.
The first order expired Monday, and a second order was issued keeping Culley unit two open through June 21. According to the utility, there will likely be a planned outage for maintenance since the order was renewed.
When newly appointed commissioner Bob Deig − the only CenterPoint customer on the IURC and an Evansville resident − asked about the financial impact of the DOE order, it was made clear by utility officials that customers aren’t paying those costs.
Mike Roeder, head of CenterPoint’s Indiana operations, said the costs of operating Culley Unit Two past its planned December 2025 closure are not currently in rates.
The utility is tracking and complying with the order, but customers are not paying for those extensions today. But though it wasn’t mentioned during Tuesday’s inquiry, ratepayers could see those costs in future bills.
In early January, CenterPoint filed two proposals related to recovering the money it costs to keep Culley open – one with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the other with the IURC.
According to the filing in the latter, CenterPoint will seek to bill ratepayers for the “the timely recovery of 80% of the federally mandated costs” through its environmental cost adjustment mechanism − one of the many additions CenterPoint tacks onto customer bills.
The remaining 20% would be deferred until CenterPoint’s next electric rate case, the filing reads.
The FERC filing isn’t directed at recovering the money that will be spent at Culley over the next few months. That would happen in a later proposal. The current one is only meant to ensure FERC “has the requisite tariff-based mechanism to effectuate the company’s cost recovery,” the filing reads.
This means it wants FERC to establish a way for CenterPoint to get its money back.
Roeder told the Courier & Press in January that “plan A” would be to go through FERC, gather the money at a later date and spread the costs through the north and central regions of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the entity that runs the electric grid for huge swaths of the U.S. That way, it wouldn’t be concentrated in Southwestern Indiana.
But consumer advocates have concerns about whether that will be the case.
What did Culley unit two do during the first 90 days?
According to the DOE, Culley operated at about 30 megawatts almost every day.
Culley Unit Two was built in 1966 and has a capacity of 103.7 MW. It was originally meant to close in 2023, but that was extended to 2025, at which point the emergency order came into play.
The order from U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright states that as a coal-fired plant, it would be difficult to have Culley start operations back once retired.
“Specifically, any stop and start of operation creates heating and cooling cycles that could cause an immediate failure that could take 30–60 days to repair if a unit comes offline,” Wright stated. “In addition, other practical issues, such as employment, contracts, and permits may greatly increase the timeline for resumption of operations. If CenterPoint Energy were to begin disassembling Unit 2 or other related facilities, the associated challenges would be greatly exacerbated.”
Advocacy groups have filed challenges to the emergency orders
Sierra Club, the Environmental Law and Policy Center, and Earthjustice, representing Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Just Transition Northwest Indiana, and Hoosier Environmental Council filed a petition for review last week in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The challenge comes in response to the continued operation of Culley unit two, as well as the last coal units at the Schahfer Generating Station in Jasper County operated by NIPSCO.
As reported by the IndyStar, both NIPSCO and CenterPoint have petitioned FERC to divvy up costs of operation across customer bills in 11 states of the surrounding MISO grid. Jessica Cantarelli, NIPSCO spokesperson, told the IndyStar the Schahfer plant used to just serve NIPSCO customers, but under the federal orders it is now serving customers across the region.
In a news release announcing the filing, Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition said the orders rob CenterPoint and NIPSCO customers of the savings promised with the planned closures of the units.
“They already face the highest electric bills in Indiana,” Olson stated. “They simply can’t afford it.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: It’s costing CenterPoint millions to keep Culley online. Who will pay?
Reporting by Sarah Loesch, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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