Nucor Steel Indiana (Crawfordsville)
Large load · 4537 S NUCOR RD, Crawfordsville, IN
Nucor Steel Indiana in Crawfordsville was Nucor's first sheet mill, opened in 1989, and the place where Nucor pioneered thin-slab casting from electric arc furnace steel. It buys power from Duke Energy Indiana, where it was described in 2009 as probably Duke's largest Indiana customer. Most of its load is taken as interruptible service, which Duke can cut at system peaks except for the supply to key equipment. Its demand in MW has not been published.
Overview
Nucor takes interruptible service from Duke: apart from load serving key equipment, Duke can temporarily shut off power to the Crawfordsville plant during peak demand. In a 2009 complaint to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, Nucor said it accepted the costs and risks of interruptibility because it needed competitively priced power, and that its costs would probably at least double on firm service. The mill's general manager wrote that year that the plant had taken interruptible service under a cost-based rate for 12 years, after an initial economic development rate that ran through July 1997.
Profile
- The 2009 contract dispute
- The original supply contract was negotiated when the mill opened about 20 years earlier. In 2009, after two years of talks, Nucor asked the IURC to set a rate schedule with reasonable and just charges, and the existing deal was extended only through the following February while the case proceeded. Nucor's counsel described Nucor as appearing to be Duke's largest Indiana customer.
- A party in Duke's Indiana rate cases
- Nucor Steel-Indiana takes part directly in Duke Energy Indiana proceedings. In October 2019 it joined Duke and Indiana's Office of Utility Consumer Counselor in a settlement over cost recovery for the Edwardsport coal gasification plant, which the OUCC said would bring an immediate $1 million residential rate credit and $85 million in further savings.
- Galvanizing and prepaint expansion
- In February 2022 Nucor approved a $290 million project to add a construction-grade continuous galvanizing line of 300,000 tons a year and a prepaint line of 250,000 tons a year, with 80 new jobs and about two years of construction. The mill employed about 770 people at the time. The new finishing lines add load on the cold-mill side, not at the melt shop.
Facility
- Activity
- Electric arc furnace thin-slab cast sheet steel
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
- Demand flexibility
- Interruptible service: Duke can temporarily shut off power to the plant during peak demand, except load for key equipment
Permits and agreements
- Agreement
- Interruptible service under a cost-based rate
Related records
Timeline
- Sep 10, 2009
- Nucor's complaint to the IURC over a new Duke Energy supply contract is reported; the existing deal is extended through February.
Nucor Steel struggling to strike new power deal with Duke Energy – Indianapolis Business Journal
- Oct 10, 2019
- Nucor Steel-Indiana joins a settlement with Duke Energy and the OUCC over Edwardsport cost recovery.
Edwardsport Plant Agreement Aims To Save Ratepayers Millions
- Feb 1, 2022
- Nucor approves a $290 million galvanizing and prepaint expansion at Crawfordsville.
Nucor to Modernize Indiana Sheet Mill