Over a month after Hancock County received the highest totals of snow seen in the county in over a decade — an event that was followed by a severe cold snap — residents are seeing the costs of heating their homes through the winter storm.

The average electric bill for Hancock County residents is $208.84 a month, the 16th most expensive bill in Indiana’s 92 counties, according to data compiled by Find Electric.

Two bordering counties, Henry and Shelby, have higher average bills than Hancock County.

Electric and utility rates have been sharply increasing across the Hoosier State, with 2025 seeing a significant rise. Federal data from Energy Information Administration show that between November 2024 and November 2025, cents per kilowatt-hour rates in Indiana jumped from 14.81 cents to 16.35 cents.

Similarly, another study found that electric bill rates spiked 17.5% between 2024 and 2025.

This recent trend of surging electricity rates is not limited to Indiana, as data from the EIA show that power bills across the nation have increased 30% since 2021.

Amid this surge, ratepayers are expressing their dismay, while Indiana lawmakers are looking to bring relief.

Why the increase in my power bill?

There are several factors contributing to the increase in electric bills, such as rising inflation and the cost of maintaining the infrastructure of the electric grid.

Ben Gavelek, external affairs specialist for the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, said other factors, such as rising fuel rates, increasing supply chain costs and the cost of compliance with environmental and other federal mandates, are additional factors that would contribute to the rising bills.

“Certain factors, such as inflation and fuel prices, are outside of a utility’s control and are driven by market conditions/external factors, while others are requested to improve resiliency or needed to ensure the continuation of safe and reliable service,” he said.

The IURC is an administrative agency that regulates electric, natural gas, steam, water and wastewater utilities, and hears cases regarding these utilities. According to its website, the IURC “is required by state statute to make decisions in the public interest to ensure the utilities provide safe and reliable service at just and reasonable rates.”

Gavelek noted state law allows municipal utilities and rural electric member cooperatives (REMCs) to opt out of the IURC’s rate-setting jurisdiction. Currently, eight utilities in the state— five investor-owned and three municipality-owned — have their rates set by the IURC. All the other municipally-owned utilities, such as Greenfield, have opted out of IURC’s rate-setting jurisdiction.

The Big Five investor-owned utility companies in Indiana are AES Indiana, CenterPoint Energy, Duke Energy, Indiana Michigan Power and the Northern Indiana Public Service Co.

Another factor in rising costs is the actions of the Indiana General Assembly. Indiana has fostered a favorable environment for utility providers in the past decade-plus, said Kerwin Olson, executive director of Citizens Action Coalition, Indiana’s largest consumer advocacy organization.

“Year after year after year, these companies have sort of been getting everything that they want at the Statehouse, shifting costs and shifting risk onto ratepayers,” he said.

Olson also said with the federal government providing less support for infrastructure projects in recent decades, those costs have shifted to the ratepayers, “and that pancakes and pancakes on top of each other.”

According to data from the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. has slowly decreased its percentage of total federal spending for infrastructure. In the mid-1960s, almost 6% of total federal spending went to infrastructure projects. Now, that total is hovering around 2%.

“The significant back and forth in federal policy, from administration change to administration change has brought uncertainty into the marketplace. Uncertainty brings risk. Risk brings higher costs, and so that’s also a problem,” Olson said.

Growing bills and frustrations

Luke Lomax moved into his house in Mt. Comfort in July 2019. Even though there is a NineStar Connect junction box in his front yard, he cannot get NineStar power because Duke Energy power lines run through his property.

Previously, Lomax lived in McCordsville, where he said his bills were around $200-$250 a month.

However, since moving to Mt. Comfort, a variety of factors — including the age of his current home and an uptick in energy usage from his family — has caused his energy bill to increase in recent years.

“Since I moved into this house, I haven’t seen a bill that was less than $350, and now it’s consistently $450-$500 a month,” Lomax said.

He said he has had months when his bill has even crossed $600.

Because of this increase in his energy bill, Lomax said he has to be more intentional than ever about the energy he is using, and that he and his family have taken several steps to limit their energy consumption.

“I have to make a conscious effort to budget around if it’s super cold or if it’s super hot in the summer … it definitely makes things more expensive,” he said.

Because of the situation he’s in, where he is locked into Duke services even though NineStar customers surround him, Lomax said he wishes he could have the choice to hook up to NineStar power, but is resigned about the situation.

“It’s just one of those things that I’ve accepted it, because I know it’s going to be expensive, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

What’s happening in Hancock County?

NineStar, a utility cooperative, is Hancock County’s largest utility provider, with around 15,000 customers in the county.
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Like many other utility cooperatives and municipal utilities, NineStar has withdrawn from the IURC’s rate jurisdiction.

NineStar has invested in new infrastructure to keep up with the growing demand of the grid in Hancock County.

NineStar president and CEO Michael R. Burrow said because of the growth, the fixed costs of the utilities would rise not as fast as the number of new customers being served.

“As you grow customers, you’re helping reduce the burden on existing customers in terms of what their utility bill needs to cover for those fixed costs,” he said.

NineStar does not generate its own power, instead buying power from a generation and transmission partner, Wabash Valley Power Alliance. Burrow said he’s experienced generation and transmission providers paying more for their energy in recent years.

“I think people are looking at that growth in electric usage, and they’re either saying, ‘Shame on you, electric cars,’ or ‘Shame on you, data centers,’ or ‘Shame on you, giant factories,’ because it’s increasing the demand on electricity,” Burrow said.

“What I think most people are missing, and they don’t appreciate, is that, yes, there’s an increase in demand, but simultaneously, we’re also going through a generational change. And when I say a generational change, maybe a once in every three or four generational change in terms of how we generate power.”

Burrow added that over the past 15 years, NineStar rates have gone up less than the rate of inflation.

A couple of years ago, NineStar adopted a new real-time pricing rate for residential and general service electric rates. Rates are defined into three separate time classifications: super off-peak, off-peak and on-peak.

On-peak hours, when people come home from work and school, have the highest cents per kilowatthour rates. Super off-peak hours, in the middle of the night, have the lowest rates. There is a 10-cent difference between the super off-peak and on-peak rates.

Burrow said utilizing a real-time pricing system is a practical answer for ratepayers to be mindful about when they are using their energy, and added he and his wife often plan their laundry and dishes around the on-peak schedule.

“We’ve heard from a lot of our members that since we’ve gone to this time of use rate, they’re saving somewhere from 15 to 20% on their electric bill just by shifting some of their usage,” he said.

Burrow said he hopes the recent spike in utility costs will taper off in five to six years once infrastructure improvement projects slow down.

Affordability priority during legislative session

During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers in Indianapolis considered rising electricity costs through one of the Republican supermajority’s priority bills, House Bill 1002, recently signed by Gov. Mike Braun.

This bill would allow residential ratepayers to enroll in budget billing plans starting July 1 and also requires utility providers to report to the state Office of Utility Consumer Counselor data points such as the number of disconnections.

It would also block shut-offs during heat waves and transform how the Big Five are regulated by the IURC, with the commission creating performance metrics based on affordability and reliability.

Olson said House Bill 1002 represents a good starting point for discussions about utility affordability, calling it a shift in how Indiana lawmakers approach utilities.

“It’s shifting the conversation at the Statehouse toward leveling the playing field and trying to make things more fair and affordable for customers, and that’s a good thing, so at least the conversation is going in that direction,” he said.
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