by Jeff Wheeler
There has never been a better time to be an electrician in Indiana, nor a more urgent need to make sure enough young Hoosiers know it.
For as long as electrical service has been available in Indianapolis, IBEW has been organizing the workers who keep the lights on. Locals 481,1393,and1395 have been the organized voice of Indiana’s energy workforce for over 80 years, charting the way for utilities to grow and build here in the Hoosier state.
In eight decades, we’ve seen grid modernization, the energy transition, and no shortage of major storms that tested the system. Now, the demand for reliable electricity is growing faster than at any point in history, driven by digital infrastructure, manufacturing reshoring, and electrification. Electrical work accounts for up to 70% of total data center construction costs, making electricians the linchpin of the most capital-intensive building boom in a generation. Indiana is well-positioned to capture a share of that investment, but only if the grid can support it, and only if there are enough skilled workers to build it.
That’s exactly why AES’s acquisition by GIP and EQT comes at the right moment. Infrastructure investors of this caliber don’t just bring capital, they bring a long investment horizon and an appetite for the kind of sustained, large-scale project work that unions are built to deliver. Moreover, the signals from their parent organization, BlackRock, are encouraging.
In March, BlackRock announced a $100 million Future Builders initiative to expand economic opportunity and power the next generation of America’s skilled trades workers. The initiative will deploy grant capital to nonprofit and workforce development partners across multiple states over five years, reaching an estimated 50,000 workers. The announcement specifically cited the IBEW and NECA’s jointly administered Electrical Training Alliance as a model, recognizing it as a training pipeline that creates pathways into the middle class and strengthens workforce capacity to build the energy and AI infrastructure powering economic growth.
A critical part of this deal is that AES Indiana will continue to operate as a locally managed, regulated utility after the transaction closes. That matters to our members. The crews who maintain the lines in Marion County and surrounding communities aren’t going anywhere. The institutional knowledge, the local leadership, the relationship with regulators, all of it stays in Indiana. What changes is the scale of investment behind it.
AES Indiana, which is now in the final year of a seven-year, $1.2 billion Smart Grid modernization program, has an acute need for patient, long-term capital. Wall Street analysts had cited credit rating concerns and the company’s leverage as constraints on its ability to keep investing at the pace Indiana’s grid demands. The risk for Hoosiers isn’t about Wall Street returns. It’s whether the capital keeps flowing into transmission upgrades, generation projects, and the sustained work that gives a Local 1395,1393,or481 member reason to put down roots in central Indiana rather than follow the next job to another state.
During its long history, AES Indiana has supplied its customers with some of the lowest-cost, most reliable power in the country, and the investment record backs that up. Pike County alone has seen approximately $1.1 billion in AES investments between 2024 and 2026, including repowering the Petersburg Generating Station and adding major solar and battery storage capacity. IBEW members built the last generation of that work. The arrival of patient, long-term capital, from owners with the resources and the horizon to see those projects through, ensures we are positioned to build the next.
Our members have built the infrastructure that powers Indianapolis. We’ve done it with AES Indiana as a partner, and we intend to keep doing it under new ownership. The grid needs upgrading. The region needs power. Indiana needs workers who can deliver both.
Indiana’s own IBEW apprenticeship programs have trained generations of electricians right here in central Indiana, producing journeymen who earn good wages, carry no student debt, and build careers that anchor families to this region.
Jeff Wheeler
Business Manager, IBEW 481
Abdul is out in Seattle this week (someone has to check on the coffee and the “chocolate”). While he’s away, Indy Politics is handing the mic to a variety of guest op-ed writers.
