Tree trimming is partly to blame for AES rate hikes
AES works to prevent power outages caused by trees
AES tree crews perform routine vegetation management around the power lines to prevent possible power outages during storms.
The AES Indiana request to raise monthly electricity bills by more than 13 percent has set off a maelstrom of opposition from city councilors, local advocacy groups and the utility’s customers.
But AES officials continue to argue the state should approve the increase, citing a slew of rising spending costs, particularly on vegetation management — a surprisingly expensive process that involves trimming trees growing near power lines.
“This is the biggest cost that’s increased for us,” said Mallory Duncan, a spokesperson for AES Indiana, on Sept. 16 as a tree crew snipped away at giant, fluffy pine near Ditch Road on the northwest side. The utility has seen vegetation management spending spike about 185 percent since 2022, she said.
Tree trimming helps ensure the power stays on during storms. Branches break off in the wind and fall onto power lines, which can shut off the lights in every house in the neighborhood. To prevent as many of these outages as possible, AES Indiana spends millions of dollars every year to trim back branches hanging near power lines.
The utility currently has approval to spend about $25 million for vegetation management near their distribution lines annually, but the latest request calls for the state to green light bumping up the budget to $42.61 million. AES cited significantly more expensive vegetation management contracts than in years past, according to testimony from the rate case.
The price of “everything has increased, but labor, labor is a big one” said Duncan.
AES’s request would significantly impact Hoosier electric bills, and the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC), the state agency tasked with representing the best interest of ratepayers, said it was not in favor of the increase.
The OUCC testified against the rate increase and recommended the state deny the bulk of AES’s vegetation management budget request. The agency said that AES’s request to increase customer rates for vegetation management was “based on flawed data.”
However, others note the additional funds could be necessary.
Utility scale vegetation management is labor intensive, widespread and sometimes precarious. And considering the national shortage of qualified arborists and increasingly stringent requirements for utility companies, a budget hike isn’t “unreasonable,” said Lindsey Purcell, the executive director of the Indiana Arborist Association.
More storms, higher prices
A changing natural environment has only intensified the need for tree trimming, Purcell said.
“Climate change has played a big role in this, with the increased frequency and intensity of storms,” said Purcell, who is also a certified arborist. “And then, of course, emerging pests and diseases have created more dead trees in the last five to 10 years, which requires faster mitigation to maintain safety and reliability.”
The crews working on AES power lines rotate through the utility’s 528 miles of service area almost every day, Duncan said.
Perched inside bucket trucks — or occasionally climbing up ropes into the canopies — tree trimmers cut branches about 15 feet back from the power lines, sawing off enough growth to keep the lines clear for about five years.
Diseased ash trees prove particularly tricky. The species, ravaged by the invasive Emerald Ash borer over the past two decades, continues to decay and cause problems for homeowners and power lines.
Failing to mitigate these issues can have even more costly consequences, Purcell said.
Fines, “litigation and settlements related to tree related outages and infrastructure damage [are] astronomical,” he said.
In the rate case, AES proposed relying on a new, more expensive type of trimming that removes overhanging branches and undergrowth below power lines, which is more reliable, said Cody Flint, AES’s vegetation management manager.In addition, Flint noted, a recent bidding process for new vegetation management contracts revealed a “significant increase in costs across all contractors who submitted bids.”
It’s still unclear if the utility’s request to increase their budget will succeed.
The OUCC called the requested increases to the vegetation management budget along distribution lines “excessive.” It also disagreed with Flint’s claim that there was causal data showing that the new more extensive trimming method led to fewer and shorter power interruptions for customers.
IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Sophie Hartley is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach her at [email protected] or on X at @sophienhartley.
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