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Google and Amazon data centers in Northwestern Indiana, if they come online as planned, will do so thanks in part to 500 megawatts of capacity from Hallador Energy’s coal-fired Merom generating station.
According to its latest regulatory filings, Hallador inked a 12-year, $1-billion deal this spring with the Northern Indiana Public Service Company to provide half a gigawatt of capacity into MISO starting in 2028. At an estimated $450 per megawatt-day, the contract represents a massive premium for Merom’s firm capacity at a time when Indiana (and the rest of the country) is grappling with massive inclement data center load.
While it won’t power the data centers directly, the coal capacity will contribute to a portfolio of resources NIPSCO will use to serve data center customers like Amazon and Google, which it announced as a customer in April, as well as future contracts.
This pooled assets approach to data center generation is part of the utility’s strategy for ring-fencing the costs of serving an expected 8.6 GW of AI load growth. Under a structure approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission last year, NIPSCO created a subsidiary specifically for building and owning generation for data centers. That separate company, called NIPSCO Generation LLC, or GenCo, is responsible for sourcing and selling power to its parent via power purchase agreements.
