Power outage investigation is unwarranted, according to AES Indiana

Indianapolis, Indiana – The company that supplies electricity to a large portion of Indianapolis claims that a state probe into power disruptions following a significant storm in June is “not warranted.”

AES Indiana asserts in a filing with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission dated Tuesday that any attempt “to paint AES Indiana as providing unreliable service and being unresponsive to this significant storm event lacks merit.”

Two consumer protection organizations have requested that the IURC look into AES Indiana for how long it took to restore power to consumers.

In the Indianapolis area, the storm knocked out the electricity for more than 81,000 consumers. Up until July 4, not all clients had their power completely restored.

“We understand that the June 29 storms were especially intense, and that additional storms occurred in the following days,” Indiana Utility Consumer Counselor Bill Fine said at the time of the investigation request. “However, we need to gather the facts regarding the outages, especially the factors causing certain customers to be without electricity for more than five days.”

In a filing last month, AES Indiana called the June 29th storm with winds of 70-80 mph in Indiana “the most severe storm to hit the Indianapolis (area) in many years.”