Overview
- A powerful derecho on Aug. 11 knocked out power to roughly 80 percent of NIPSCO customers, leaving some households and businesses without electricity for up to two weeks.
- By Aug. 27 NIPSCO reported power restored to about 99 percent of affected customers after crews rebuilt hundreds of distribution poles and repaired transmission equipment.
- NIPSCO filed three cost‑adjustment applications on Aug. 11, Aug. 14 and Aug. 20 seeking about $250 million in funding that regulators say could raise the average customer bill by roughly $7.33 per month.
- Indiana Gov. Mike Braun directed the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor to ask the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to investigate NIPSCO’s vegetation management, spending and storm preparedness, and a class‑action lawsuit alleges the company trimmed 954 miles of lines instead of the 1,263 miles it promised.
- Gary residents and faith leaders reported lost food, medical risks and homes during the outage and advocates warn state rules let utilities pass storm costs to customers even though NIPSCO was authorized for roughly $2.5 billion in upgrades and bills are about 63 percent higher than a decade ago.