McGuireWoods served as legal adviser to NiSource, one of the nation’s largest fully regulated utilities, and its subsidiaries in connection with a new long-term energy agreement with Microsoft for the tech company’s northwest Indiana data center campus.
Through NiSource Generation Company (GenCo), NiSource is serving new large-load customers under a structure designed to protect existing Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) electric customers from incremental costs and to return value from large-load customers’ use of the existing electric system. McGuireWoods lawyers previously advised NiSource on the development of this innovative model, under which large-load customers fully fund the generation and infrastructure required to serve their needs.
Under the agreement, Microsoft is expected to begin taking electric service under a 20-year term starting in 2028. GenCo will increase its pool portfolio by approximately 1,100 megawatts, and NIPSCO and GenCo will provide the transmission and generation infrastructure needed to serve Microsoft’s data center and NIPSCO’s customers. Microsoft will fully fund all generation and transmission required to serve its load. In connection with the agreement, GenCo has also contracted 600 megawatts of battery storage under a long-term tolling agreement, with the facility to be developed and constructed by an affiliate of AGP Group.
The Microsoft agreement follows McGuireWoods’ work for NiSource in developing GenCo’s model for meeting the data center industry’s energy needs. In 2025, the firm advised NIPSCO and GenCo in structuring an electric service agreement with Amazon to supply up to 3 gigawatts of capacity for Amazon data center sites in NIPSCO’s Northern Indiana service territory.
The McGuireWoods team advising NiSource included Brian Kelly, Jake Spilman, Najwan Nayef, Sam Kettering, Jacob Lubinski, Chris Alderman, Matthew Stuart and Mark Staines. Joanne Katsantonis and Emilie McNally provided overall corporate, board and governance advice.
“This agreement marks another milestone for NiSource’s GenCo model. We are proud to have helped turn an innovative concept into a proven platform for serving the nation’s largest energy users,” said Katsantonis, who co-leads McGuireWoods’ Energy M&A and Finance Practice Group. “Our team has advised on these complex, large-load transactions from the ground up, anticipating and addressing challenges that come with powering data center growth at this scale.”
McGuireWoods’ Energy M&A and Finance Practice Group — ranked nationally by Chambers USA, the Legal 500 United States and Best Law Firms — combines focused industry knowledge, regulatory fluency and practical, business-driven solutions to ensure clients complete strategic transactions, secure financing and advance critical projects across the country. The firm’s cross-practice data centers team provides strategic guidance on transactions, site selection, permitting and energy procurement.