| | DECEMBER 20228IN MY OPINIONA CREATIVE COMMERCIAL APPROACHAndy Campbell, Director Portfolio Planning & Origination, NIPSCOHistorically, utilities have faced challenges with achieving economic parity between renewables and more traditional forms of generation. Renewable technology prices falling is part of the rubric that has solved part of this parity issue. Even so, being able to efficiently utilize the tax benefits afforded to renewables has been a barrier to more regulated utilities directly owning large-scale renewable assets. But, by applying creative commercial approaches, the prospects of utilities owning renewables and efficiently utilizing the aforementioned tax benefits is attainable. That doesn't imply it is easy, though...Going back to 2018, Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) began a path that sought to retire its coal-fired generation over a ten-year period. This plan was set forth in an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), a regulatory planning process used in Indiana, which is commonplace for many utilities. NIPSCO utilized a trail-blazing approach to inform its IRP by running a Request for Proposals as part of its process, to better inform the study's conclusions and to have credible projects to enter into commercial agreements with. The result was a short-term action plan that would seek to retire four coal units totaling 1.6 gigawatts and replacing with over three GW of renewables comprised of wind, solar, and solar paired with batteries coupled with NIPSCO's existing fleet of natural gas and hydro generating By
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