NIPSCO urged to repay 4,000 Northwest Indiana residents over decades of double charges

NIPSCO officials declined to comment on the matter Saturday.

“NIPSCO’s prolonged metering failure, decision to conceal it from customers and the public, and refusal to fully refund customers for its mistake is the latest example of its abysmal service and disregard for affordability,” said CAC Program Director Ben Inskeep.

Citizens Action Coalition testified that some NIPSCO customers had raised concerns and had their meters tested, but NIPSCO’s meter testing failed to register the issue. It questioned why NIPSCO discovered the problem in October 2024 but didn’t tell the IURC until Sept. 2025 and did not let the affected customers know until March.

The consumer group alleges NIPSCO concealed the problem by identifying partial refunds as policy adjustments without any explanation and only refunded customers for 12 months of overcharges even though some may have been overcharged for more than 50 years.

”NIPSCO’s repeated failures and egregious management decisions demand a strong rebuke from the IURC, and customers who have been overcharged deserve full and fair restitution,” Inskeep said.

The Merrillville-based gas and electric utility disclosed to the state that about 0.8% of the meters upon which it installed automatic digital readers delivered incorrect readings and that it fixed most of them. NIPSCO has been retrofitting the old mechanical meters with new readers that send usage figures to NIPSCO via radio signal without having to come onto one’s property or do drive-by metering.

The faulty meters were not rotating at the correct drive rate, often recording more natural gas than was actually delivered, NIPSCO disclosed in testimony to the IURC.