Microsoft has signed a 20 year energy agreement with Indiana regulated utility NiSource to power its planned data center campus in northern Indiana. The contract commences in 2028, when Microsoft is expected to begin taking power for the facility, and NiSource’s generation portfolio will be increased by around 1.1 gigawatts to serve it.
Power will be delivered through NiSource Generation Company, known as GenCo. The campus will be served under a new large load rate structure under which large load users fund the generation and infrastructure needed to power their facilities, a design the utility says protects existing customers from price rises. In connection with the deal, GenCo has contracted 600 megawatts of battery storage under a tolling agreement, to be built by an affiliate of AGP Group.
NiSource said the agreement increases expected savings for its Northern Indiana Public Service Company electric customers over the life of its data center contracts to about 1.75 billion dollars, up from 1.4 billion dollars previously disclosed, which it said could amount to as much as 140 dollars per customer annually. Microsoft will fully fund the generation and transmission infrastructure required to serve its load, according to the companies.
“Affordability is not separate from economic development; it is a key pillar of our GenCo model,” NiSource president and chief executive Lloyd Yates said. Microsoft’s senior director of energy markets, Jeff Riles, said the company is committed to paying its own way so its data centers do not increase electricity prices for other ratepayers.
The agreement is thought to serve Microsoft’s under construction campus at La Porte, where the company first announced a 245,000 square foot data center on 489 acres as part of a 1 billion dollar investment in northwest Indiana in 2024, and where it revealed in April 2026 that it was planning 17 buildings on an expanded plot. Microsoft also owns 939 acres in Mishawaka, Indiana, thought to be set for a data center.