Introduction

The Indiana General Assembly passed a major energy utility bill during the 2026 session, House Enrolled Act 1002. Governor Braun signed HEA 1002 into law on February 26, 2025. The bill’s stated goal was balance and affordability — recognizing that Indiana needs financially stable utilities capable of investing in infrastructure and modernizing the grid, while also acknowledging that families and businesses face real pressure from rising costs, seasonal spikes, and economic uncertainty.

HEA 1002 restructures electric utility rate cases to require the use of multi-year rate plans with performance incentive mechanisms (for affordability and reliability), adds new summer disconnection protections for electric utility customers during heat emergencies, requires that eligible electric utility low-income customers be enrolled in levelized billing plans, requires electric utilities to implement assistance programs for eligible low-income customers, imposes and new reporting reporting obligations with respect to certain categories of customer information. HEA 1002 also modifies the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s emergency powers and directs (or in some cases allows) the IURC to adopt rules to implement portions of HEA 1002.

As a practical matter, HEA 1002 will change how and when utilities seek rate changes, increase transparency on disconnections and arrearages, and heighten focus on affordability and outage performance in Commission proceedings.

HEA 1002 addresses the following issues, and detailed summaries can be found in the links below:

• Levelized billing plans (SECTION 2 of HEA 1002)
• Disconnection moratorium (SECTION 5 of HEA 1002)
• Quarterly reports to OUCC concerning certain customer data (SECTION 7 of HEA 1002)
• Multi-year rate plans with performance incentive mechanisms (SECTIONS 10, 3, 9 of HEA 1002)
• Low-income customer assistance (SECTION 11 of HEA 1002)
• Emergency powers (SECTIONS 4, 1, 6, 8 of HEA 1002)
• IURC rule amendments (SECTIONS 12, 13 of HEA 1002)

A summary of HEA 1002 implementation deadlines can be found here.

For further information or guidance on the impacts of HEA 1002, please contact Kay Pashos, Teresa Morton Nyhart, Mark Alson, or Jeffrey Peabody.