Subnational jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06
Indiana's data-center permitting spine runs through the same general local land-use and state utility and environmental statutes that govern any large industrial facility: county or municipal zoning ordinances and board-of-zoning-appeals variances or special exceptions under the advisory and area planning law, an Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission certificate of public convenience and necessity before a public utility builds new generation capacity, and a Title V operating permit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management for a generator fleet's air emissions.
Indiana layers two data-center-specific incentives onto that spine, both added by House Enrolled Act 1405 of 2019 and unamended since: a state sales and use tax exemption for qualified data-center equipment administered through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, with exemption terms of 25 years or, for a qualified investment of $750,000,000 or more, 50 years; and a county- or municipality-designated property tax exemption for enterprise information-technology equipment in a locally designated high-technology district.
House Enrolled Act 1007 of 2025 responded to data-center electricity demand directly, adding an expedited generation-resource-planning and large-load-customer framework to the utility code that lets the commission fast-track a utility's generation and infrastructure filings for a large load customer (in practice, a facility requesting at least 150 megawatts or 5% of the utility's peak demand, with a capital investment over $500,000,000) while negotiating a risk premium the customer pays toward the project's cost.
7 instruments on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.
Who decides whether a data center may occupy a site, and through what approval?
Ind. Code § 36-7-4-918.3 et seq.
Applies to both
Authorizes a local board of zoning appeals to grant a variance from a use district or classification, a variance of use, a variance from development standards, or a special exception; where a district's zoning allows a data center only by special exception or requires a variance, this is the case-record authority for that approval.
Source: Full text of law
Ind. Code § 36-7-4-601 et seq.
Applies to both
Gives a county or municipal legislative body exclusive authority to adopt a zoning ordinance for the geographic area under its jurisdiction, once a comprehensive plan has been approved, establishing the zoning districts, including industrial and special-use districts, that a data-center project sites within.
Source: Full text of law
What authorizations govern grid connection and onsite generation?
Applies to private
A public utility may not begin construction, purchase, or lease of a generation facility without first obtaining a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission; the same chapter governs the commission's review of integrated resource plans and the retirement, sale, or transfer of existing generation capacity, which is the certification track a utility follows when it builds new generation to serve data-center load.
Source: Full text of law
Effective 2025-05-06 · Applies to private
Adds a chapter letting the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission expedite its review of an energy utility's generation-resource filings tied to a large load customer, defined as a customer or up to four related customers requesting new electricity demand exceeding the lesser of 5% of the utility's average peak demand or 150 megawatts.
A large load customer must also be planning a capital investment over $500,000,000, and planning to employ at least 50 full-time employees at or above the national average wage. The utility and the large load customer negotiate a reasonable risk premium the customer pays toward the project, and the commission's expedited process covers pre-filing meetings, generation resource submittals, and cost recovery tied to the project.
Enacted as House Enrolled Act 1007, signed by the Governor May 6, 2025 and effective upon passage under the act's own effective-date clause.
Source: Full text of law
What permits govern backup generators and ongoing emissions?
Applies to private
Implements the federal Clean Air Act's Title V operating permit program for a source subject to the requirement to obtain an air permit, funded by fees the Indiana Department of Environmental Management collects into a dedicated trust fund; a data center's backup generator fleet permits its air emissions under this program administered by the department.
Source: Full text of law
What fiscal agreements attach a data center to its host jurisdiction?
Effective 2019-07-01 · Applies to private
Lets a county (outside a consolidated city) or a municipality designate a high-technology district area and, by agreement with a business operating or leasing a computing, networking, or data-storage facility there, exempt that business's enterprise information-technology equipment, including servers, routers, and backup generators, from local property tax for a period the designating body's agreement specifies.
Eligibility requires an aggregate investment of at least $25,000,000 in real and personal property at the facility, raised from $10,000,000 by the same 2019 act, and an average wage at least 125% of the county average. This is a locally-administered exemption distinct from the state sales-tax exemption in Ind.
Code § 6-2.5-15; both provisions were last amended by House Enrolled Act 1405 of 2019, this section effective July 1, 2019 under the act's own effective-date clause, and neither has been amended since.
Source: Full text of law
Effective 2019-01-01 · Applies to private
Exempts the sale of qualified data-center equipment, including servers, cooling and monitoring systems, software, and electricity used by that equipment, from Indiana's state gross retail tax, where the equipment is sold to a qualified data-center user approved by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation for a facility the corporation has designated a qualified data center.
The corporation issues a specific transaction award certificate that expires 25 years after issuance, or 50 years after issuance where the qualified investment is $750,000,000 or more, and requires the data-center user to enter an agreement including an annual report of the taxes not paid under the exemption. Added by House Enrolled Act 1405 as a new chapter, retroactively effective January 1, 2019 under the act's own effective-date clause, and unamended since.
Source: Full text of law
Every entry cites the instrument it describes. None of it is legal advice: verify a citation before relying on it. Full sourcing: read the methodology. The rest of the record: all jurisdictions.