Efforts include immediate and longer-term actions to target keeping electric rates near or below rate of inflation for two years, provide future customer savings of approximately $18 per month in avoided costs, and lower rates by approximately $3 per month by the end of this year.
Company will seek feedback from Indiana stakeholders, local and state leaders and customers to gather ideas and identify additional actions to help mitigate rate increases in future years.
Customer outreach efforts will highlight significant generation and infrastructure investments included in the recent rate case to improve service for the benefit of southwestern Indiana customers.
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Oct. 23, 2025 – As part of a commitment to prioritize customer affordability, CenterPoint Energy today announced an initial series of Community Affordability Actions to support its customers and communities across southwestern Indiana. The effort will target keeping rates near or below the rate of inflation for the next two years, excluding expenses like fuel costs that CenterPoint does not directly control or profit from. This action will help save residential customers approximately $18 per month in avoided costs through 2027. Additional bill adjustments and credits will also start to take effect in November and result in an average net decrease of nearly $3 per month for residential customers by the end of 2025.
“We have clearly heard our customers’ concerns about energy affordability. We sincerely apologize for our customers’ frustration and are determined to take action. These initial Community Affordability Actions will help keep rate changes near or below the rate of inflation. Going forward, we will continue to engage with our customers, stakeholders, elected officials and community leaders to listen, gather feedback and identify ways to further address concerns and prioritize affordability, while also continuing to prioritize providing reliable power for our customers across southwestern Indiana,” said Mike Roeder, President of CenterPoint Energy Indiana.
Community Affordability Actions
As part of an effort to balance the importance of customer affordability and the future energy needs of southwestern Indiana, CenterPoint will be engaging directly with customers and community leaders to identify additional actions that can be taken over the coming years to address customer concerns and help keep rates stable. More immediately, the first phase of its affordability actions will include the following:
- Two-Year Rates Stability: Starting in the first quarter of 2026, stabilizing electricity bills by keeping any rate change below or near the rate of inflation for the next two years, an action that equates to future savings for residential customers—approximately $18/month of avoided costs through 2027.
- Offset October Rate Increase: Reducing bills by nearly $3/month for average residential customers by December 2025 through a combination of bill adjustments and credits, which will offset rate changes that took effect in October.
CenterPoint’s commitment to affordability builds on previous actions taken to reduce cost impacts for customers in 2023 and 2025. Those previous affordability actions included:
- Voluntarily Reduced Company Profits: Lowered CenterPoint’s profits as part of the recent rate case approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission in February 2025.
- Voluntarily Eliminated Profits on Older, Retired Power Plant: Eliminated all profits on an older, retired coal plant under recent state legislation, making CenterPoint the only utility in Indiana to take this action and helping to reduce cost impacts on customers by approximately $5/month since June 2023.
- No Formal Base Rate Case for 14 Years: Between 2011 and 2023, neither CenterPoint Energy, nor its predecessor companies, filed a formal base rate case to the IURC to request increases in electric base rates in Southwestern Indiana.
Engaging With Customers Around Critical Local Grid Investments
To help address customers’ questions concerning the 2025 rate case, and to reassure customers of the importance of the decade-long infrastructure investments made to exclusively benefit communities in southwestern Indiana, CenterPoint will be engaging across multiple channels with customers to highlight the benefit of these key investments. Among the investments that were supported by the recent rate changes were:
- Strengthening the Electric Grid: Upgraded 11,000+ poles, transmission towers and structures to ensure reliability (2017-2022); cleared 7,000+ miles of vegetation to reduce storm-related outages (2011-2023); and made other vital infrastructure investments.
- Installing Smart Meters: Installed 159,000+ smart meters to improve restoration times and provide customers more information and control over their energy usage (2011-2023).
- Building New Generation Sources: Replaced coal-fired generation with secure and diversified generation resources (i.e. natural gas and renewables) to help meet current and future energy demand, which is vital to supporting future job growth in the region.
In total, because of CenterPoint’s investments in southwestern Indiana, the average frequency of customer outages decreased by more than 44% from 2011 to 2024. In addition, the company’s electric grid automation and reliability efforts have prevented customers from experiencing more than 8 million outage minutes since 2021.
Prioritizing Winter Savings and Energy Efficiency
CenterPoint’s affordability actions will also include a community-wide outreach effort and public awareness campaign focused on winter energy savings. The goal of this effort is to raise customer awareness of vital programs and resources throughout the winter months, when global energy markets can impact local fuel pricing and customer bills. CenterPoint’s winter savings campaign will begin in October and focus on important energy savings tips and resources, such as home weatherization, that can help reduce energy usage and the bill impact of fluctuations in global fuel prices.
