Duke Energy Breaks Ground on Cayuga Energy Complex Project in Indiana

Duke Energy announced that it has ceremonially broken ground on a project to modernize and expand power generation at the existing Cayuga power plant in Vermillion County, Indiana.

The company is building two combined cycle natural gas turbines at the site of the Cayuga Generating Station. The new facilities, to be known as the Cayuga Energy Complex, are expected to increase generating capacity at the site by 470 megawatts, bringing the total capacity to 1,476 megawatts. According to the company, that amount of generation is enough to power 1.1 million homes in its Indiana service area.

The plant will use combined cycle technology, which captures waste heat from a natural gas turbine and uses it to power a steam turbine to extract additional energy from the same fuel source.

The Cayuga Generating Station is currently the oldest coal-fired power plant in Duke Energy’s Indiana system and has been in service for nearly 60 years.

Since placing its last major Indiana power plant into service in 2013, the company said it has added more than 135,000 new customers, including residential customers and large industrial and manufacturing users.

The company also noted that Indiana’s population growth in 2025 exceeded that of neighboring states and the national average, while the state’s GDP growth also surpassed the national average.

According to Duke Energy, the project is expected to support more than 3,700 jobs, including construction, supplier and related industry positions.

Construction crews have already begun grading the site and installing underground piping. The first new generating unit is expected to come online in 2029, with the second unit expected in 2030.

Through a settlement with Reliable Energy, Inc., Duke Energy said it is studying the feasibility of selling the existing Cayuga coal units to a third party.

Indiana Secretary of Energy and Natural Resources Suzie Jaworowski said, “The Cayuga Energy Complex will add needed new power generation to the Indiana grid through energy-efficient natural gas facilities, but there’s also a careful evaluation underway of a sale of the existing coal units. As a state, we are growing, and so is our energy demand. We need to look at all options for a reliable, affordable energy future."