Duke Energy Indiana Commits $200,000 to Assist Customers with Summer Energy Bills
Duke Energy Indiana is allocating $200,000 to its Share the Light Fund to provide relief to customers dealing with financial difficulties during the hot summer months. This initiative is designed to support individuals and families as they face increased electricity usage and elevated energy expenses due to rising temperatures.

“The Share the Light Fund gives customers access to critical resources that help cover electricity costs and maintain a safe, cool living environment during the summer,” said Stan Pinegar, president of Duke Energy Indiana. “We’re grateful for our ongoing collaboration with community action agencies across the state, who help us identify those in need and ensure the funds reach them.”

In collaboration with the Indiana Community Action Association, Duke Energy offers up to $300 in assistance to eligible customers. These funds can be used to cover energy bills, deposits, and connection or reconnection charges. Customers are encouraged to reach out to their local community action agency to determine eligibility. A full directory of service providers by county is available at incap.org/energy-assistance.

“Seasonal spikes in energy costs can be particularly challenging for families already struggling financially,” said Ed Gerardot, executive director of the Indiana Community Action Association. “Thanks to partners like Duke Energy, we’re able to offer meaningful support to those in need, helping them reduce expenses and work toward greater financial security.”

In the past five years, nearly $4 million has been distributed through the Share the Light Fund, made possible by contributions from Duke Energy shareholders, employees, and generous customers. This assistance has benefited approximately 15,000 households across Indiana.
To further support customers, Duke Energy provides a range of tools to help manage energy usage and reduce costs, including:

Click here to know more about these programs.

For major energy providers like Southern Company, keeping energy affordable has always been a foundational priority. When energy costs rise beyond reach, it affects customers' quality of life, disrupts business operations, and drives potential economic growth elsewhere.
Customer satisfaction has consistently guided the Atlanta-based company’s direction. While affordability is the starting point, energy must also be reliable, clean, and safe. These key components must work in unison to ensure a strong and dependable energy system that supports economic development and delivers essential services to businesses and households alike.

Southern Company has consistently positioned itself as a provider of long-term value—a strategy that has benefited both the company and its customers for over a century. Achieving this requires not only managing daily operations effectively but also maintaining strong partnerships with regulators. It's about balancing short-term investor expectations with the long-term needs of customers.

“Affordable electricity and natural gas enhance quality of life,” said Chris Womack, Chairman, President, and CEO of Southern Company. “When energy remains within reach financially, it becomes more accessible, helping to fuel economic development, business creation, job growth, and innovation.”

Energy is a fundamental driver of the economy, and Southern Company embraces its responsibility to help stimulate regional and national economic growth. The company continues to invest in advanced technologies and infrastructure to meet evolving energy needs.

Operating under a regulated utility model for more than 100 years, Southern Company has played a key role in advancing public policy and supporting economic activity. Maintaining affordable service while expanding energy capabilities depends on several critical elements:

Recent economic developments within Southern Company’s service areas highlight this role. Leading automobile manufacturers are establishing electric vehicle and battery production facilities across the Southeast. The region is also attracting data centers due to reliable energy support enabled by coordinated efforts between energy providers and policymakers. For example, Alabama Power helped bring an $800 million Meta data center and 100 jobs to Montgomery. Additionally, Mississippi Power is set to deliver 500 megawatts of energy to a new hyperscale data center campus in Meridian, Mississippi.

“The remarkable growth forecast across our service areas presents tremendous opportunities for both the company and our communities,” Womack noted. “We will continue to pursue these opportunities with innovation and collaboration, always keeping customers at the heart of our work.”

To maintain a balance of affordability, reliability, and resilience, a diverse energy generation mix is essential.

“We understand how vital energy is, and we’re committed to working with regulators to ensure customers have the energy they need to flourish,” Womack said. “We must use all available resources responsibly, keeping customer needs in mind from a cost, reliability, sustainability, and resilience perspective as we shape future energy policies.”

With an inclusive energy approach, Southern Company is expanding its energy portfolio. In addition to completing Units 3 and 4 at the Plant Vogtle nuclear facility, the company, alongside Kinder Morgan, is expanding the South System 4 pipeline through Southern Natural Gas (SNG), boosting capacity by roughly 1.2 billion cubic feet per day to meet increasing demand.

Georgia Power also recently launched its first battery storage facility—Mossy Branch Battery Facility—a 65-megawatt grid-connected energy storage system. At the same time, Southern Company continues to work with regulators to expand its renewable energy presence.

Looking to the future, Southern Company’s research and development team collaborates with national labs, government entities, universities, and industry peers to develop cutting-edge energy technologies. These R&D efforts focus on innovations that support clean, reliable, affordable, and safe energy for a rapidly evolving world. Projects include advancing hydrogen technology for transportation and industrial applications and increasing renewable natural gas use.

Affordability is not only essential for economic expansion but also critical for easing the energy cost burden on households, especially those with limited incomes.

Southern Company actively promotes energy efficiency by encouraging customers to adopt smarter energy usage habits. It also partners with nonprofits, community groups, religious organizations, and government programs to assist families facing financial challenges—ensuring equitable access to reliable energy services.

Southern Company remains committed to progress. “There’s always more we can do,” Womack stated.

By staying focused on affordability, while also prioritizing reliability and resilience, Southern Company has sustained success for over a century. Its ever-evolving vision continues to support customers’ financial well-being, serve as a powerful economic catalyst, and foster strong community relationships—both now and into the future.

Today, over 1.5 billion people, primarily in developing countries, lack access to dependable energy. Addressing this urgent issue requires immediate action to expand access to affordable and reliable clean electricity worldwide. A swift transition to sustainable energy, driven by targeted initiatives to combat energy poverty, has the potential to transform millions of lives while addressing climate change.

Renewable energy systems, including minigrids, stand-alone units, and off-grid solutions, play a crucial role in this effort. These systems can independently generate and distribute power, making them ideal for areas with limited or no connection to traditional grids. Research indicates that Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) could provide electricity to about 500 million people by 2030. DRE systems not only replace environmentally harmful diesel generators but also improve energy affordability and reliability for homes and businesses. Additionally, their deployment and maintenance create high-quality local jobs. The International Energy Agency has identified off-grid solutions as the most cost-effective way to electrify nearly half the world’s unconnected population by 2030.

Minigrids and Microgrids: Key Solutions for Energy Access
Minigrids are small, independent power networks that can integrate with the main grid or operate autonomously. They supply power to various users, including homes, businesses, and industries, within a specific area, making them particularly useful in rural or semi-urban regions where extending the main grid is impractical or costly.

In contrast, microgrids are smaller-scale systems that typically serve a single location, such as a hospital, university, or military base. Both systems decentralize energy generation and provide reliable, affordable electricity to underserved areas, making them vital for achieving global energy access targets. However, despite their promise, the adoption of minigrids in developing countries has been slow due to various challenges.

Barriers to Minigrid Adoption
A report by BloombergNEF and SEforALL highlights three key obstacles: the need for regulatory frameworks to protect revenue streams, affordability concerns, and the scalability limitations of small projects. Additional challenges include:

Overcoming these barriers requires comprehensive strategies to lower costs, improve financing options, and strengthen community involvement while ensuring affordability for local populations.

Drivers for Scaling Minigrids
The World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program outlines five key drivers to unlock the full potential of minigrids:

Innovative Payment Solutions
In India, the "Climate Smart Village Solution" pilot has enabled farmers to use solar power for irrigation and other needs, increasing income while reducing costs through inverter-less, battery-free solutions. Such initiatives demonstrate the potential of renewable energy to support rural economies affordably.

Achieving SDG 7 with Standardized Systems
To meet Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), Africa alone will require 100,000 minigrids annually. Standardizing designs and products can simplify installation, reduce engineering complexities, and accelerate deployment. Solar projects in India, ranging from 50 kW to 3 MW, show promising outcomes, with payback periods of 3 to 3.5 years and lifetime savings of 8 to 10 times the initial investment.

Transforming Lives with Minigrids
Minigrids provide life-changing power in underserved areas. For example, a solar-powered 8.7 kW minigrid installed at a maternity hospital in Kisii, Kenya, enabled 24/7 operations, increasing monthly deliveries from 5 to 20 and reducing energy costs. On Myanmar’s Kenti Island, a solar minigrid now powers 300 households, schools, a clinic, and businesses, spurring local economic growth and empowering women to start home-based ventures.

Benefits of Standardization
Standardized minigrid systems offer several advantages:

By prioritizing standardization, we can accelerate the global adoption of minigrids, fostering widespread energy access, economic development, and improved living standards.