Gov. Mike Braun on Monday directed the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor to file a complaint and petition the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to open an investigation into NIPSCO following power outages in Northwest Indiana that began with severe weather on Aug. 11.
According to a release from the governor’s office, the requested review would examine NIPSCO’s preparation for and response to the storms, whether the utility adequately maintained vegetation and cleared rights-of-way to protect its infrastructure, and whether funding approved by state regulators for infrastructure and reliability improvements was spent as promised.
“NIPSCO is a monopoly utility that Hoosiers pay every month with the expectation that it will use its considerable resources to maintain its system, prepare for severe weather and restore service as quickly as possible when disaster strikes,” Braun said in the statement. “NIPSCO has failed to keep its end of the bargain.”
Braun said he was directing the OUCC to seek the investigation “so we can determine whether NIPSCO did what it promised ratepayers and regulators it would do with the money it was given.”
The release said the governor also directed state agencies to clear roads, alleyways and debris to give utility crews access, and that crews from both state agencies and the utility had done what he called an extraordinary job.
The OUCC represents the interests of utility consumers in proceedings before the IURC. The utility consumer counselor is appointed by the governor. The Commission regulates Indiana’s investor-owned utilities and has authority over rates, charges and service. It would decide whether to open an investigation.
The governor’s office said some 10,000 customers remained without power Monday. NIPSCO’s outage page reported 10,187 customers out as of 7 a.m., about 4,302 of them attributed to Storm Lucy and subsequent storms. The company listed estimated restoration times of Monday night for Lake Station and Munster and Tuesday night for Gary and Portage.
NIPSCO has described the Aug. 11 derecho as the largest outage event in its history, reporting wind gusts approaching 100 mph across nearly its entire electric service territory and about 60 percent of its electric customers without power at the peak. The company reported 374,500 total outages since the storm and 364,400 customers restored, and said it has replaced thousands of poles and more than two million feet of wire. NIPSCO earlier estimated 90 percent of affected customers would be restored by Aug. 18 and all customers by Aug. 21.
The infrastructure funding referenced in the release is recovered through the Transmission, Distribution and Storage System Improvement Charge, a tracker authorized under Indiana Code 8-1-39. The statute allows electric and gas utilities to file five- to seven-year infrastructure plans and, once a plan is approved, to seek incremental rate increases every six months.
The IURC approved NIPSCO’s current $1.64 billion electric infrastructure plan in December 2021 in Cause No. 45557. The plan runs through 2026 and includes pole replacements, transformer and substation upgrades and advanced metering infrastructure. The Commission approved NIPSCO’s previous electric plan in 2016 in Cause No. 44733, capping recovery at $1.25 billion.
In July 2023, the OUCC and the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana filed a joint petition asking the IURC to investigate AES Indiana’s storm outage restoration practices after a June 2023 derecho. AES Indiana told the Commission its existing framework was sufficient. The IURC dismissed the case in April 2024.
NIPSCO, a subsidiary of NiSource, serves roughly 500,000 electric customers in northern Indiana.
