The Cost of Power: ABC57 digs into rising utility bills causing regional outrage
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — ABC57’s Blake Parker spent weeks digging into the rising cost of utility bills across Northern Indiana, after rapid social media outrage with hundreds of posts, and protests directed at the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) amassed across the region.
Mid-January, a Facebook page ‘NIPSCO Monopoly Madness’ was created by retired LaPorte County homeowner, Terri Logan, and it quickly gained more than 30,000 followers.
As the members of that group shared photos of bills with charges they didn’t understand, they also shared their stories. Some said their bills were double or triple what they were this time last year. Many explained they are having to choose between shelling out cash for things like groceries, medicine, or even the rent, or paying their gas or electric bills.
"We should not have to make choices between paying our NIPSCO bill or buying food or medicine. We shouldn't have to be doing that, that's not America," said Logan.
Several protests have taken place, including a handful at the NIPSCO headquarters in Merrillville, IN. They demonstrate just a glimpse into the customers’ growing demand for answers. What is the cost of power?
Standing out in the snow, then over the phone, Michelle Chapman told ABC57's Blake Parker her story. How she's an army veteran and she's fighting for her life in a few different ways.
"I had like three brain surgeries, a spinal cord surgery, and I have a port because my veins kind of went bad after some of the surgeries and then I say I have some army metal down there in my foot for sprinkles," said Chapman.
She describes her humor as a brave face through the life she's faced. A foot injury in the army was just the start of her medical journey. She has Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, a rare brain disease with no cure, and a neurodegenerative disease, which derailed her work toward a career in nursing.
"It says we're not supposed to fear or have anxiety in the bible, but...it's there," shared Chapman.
She's on social security and VA disability and compensation. She said that puts her in a better position than most, but without savings, her fixed income is at the end of its rope, with NIPSCO taking nearly a third recently. Her January bill was $727.45.
NIPSCO has explained on both their website and through social media posts that a harsh winter plays a part in bill spikes.
“...during extreme cold, both increase, not because of decisions made overnight, but because the system has to work harder to keep service reliable,” said NIPSCO CEO Vincent Parisi in a Facebook post.
When it's hot, people use more electricity to cool things down and more gas in the winter to stay warm, and recently we have seen the extremes.
ABC57 Chief Meteorologist Tom Coomes said this is the coldest winter this area has had in over a decade. Dec. 2024 averaged 32.9 degrees, while Dec. 2025 sat at 27.2 degrees. On the flip side, 2024 was the warmest year on record for South Bend and much of the U.S. Yet many customers said they don't think weather is the only why.
"I do not buy it's a weather problem, I think it's price gouging in my opinion," said Goshen resident Robin Dean while protesting in Merrillville.
"In December 2024, compared to my December of 2025, my bill doubled... We've updated our house, we've done everything NIPSCO tells you to do, do this, do that, do this. We've done it all, and our bills are still astronomical," said Logan.
Hers and much of the community's big question: why are delivery fees and customer charges getting so high?
"Just think of all the customers, homes that NIPSCO serves and even at $150 delivery fee for your gas usage, the money they are making. And you can't tell me it's costing them that much to get our natural gas to us. There is no way," said Logan.
To avoid the cost, some are putting themselves in danger. Pat McKelvey fears the worst. He's retired now but spent his career in Michiana as a union pipefitter and plumbing, heating, and A/C contractor. He may not be on the job, but friends still call and he shows up. And he's terrified by what he's seen in the community.
"Nobody needs to die because they can't heat their home... they don't understand it. It's higher than it's ever been and natural gas hasn't went up in price, so where are all these extra charges coming from? And I hear, and I don't have NIPSCO electric, but I hear the electric is even worse," said McKelvey.
He said people always scramble when the cold or heat hits, but he's said never seen so many people take actions to cut costs that could put their lives at risk, like filling their house with carbon monoxide on accident by using a heater or grill inside, or he even said he knows of people attempting to tamper with the meter, which could lead to gas leaks or explosions.
"It's terrible. It really breaks our hearts... you know we work tirelessly to try and fight against these rate increases. I think we're just at a point where everything has come to roost," said the Citizens Action Coalition Regulatory Director, Jennifer Washburn.
The Citizens Action Coalition (CAC) said this story goes back years. Who are they?
"We are considered the consumer watchdog group if you will. Statewide consumer and environmental advocacy group that works before the Indiana legislature on clean energy policy, consumer policy, and then we do a lot of work before the regulatory commission, intervening with the big utilities in Indiana on behalf of residential ratepayers," said CAC Executive Director Kerwin Olson.
For twenty years, Olson has worked with the Indiana General Assembly. He said it comes down to legislation.
"We're supposed to have, you know, shared sacrifice if you will. But what we're seeing is a regulatory and a policy regime in the state of Indiana that shifts virtually all of the costs, all of the risks onto captive utility ratepayers," stated Olson. "Whether electric, whether gas, whether water, whether wastewater, in this case we're talking NIPSCO."
He said customers are seeing a culmination of years and years of pro-utility policy in the statehouse that has allowed for rate increase after rate increase.
"...meaning, ratepayers have to pay for everything. They need to put in new pipelines for gas, they need to put in new meters, whatever it may be legislatures have been very friendly to NIPSCO and the other electric and gas utilities," said Olson.
"The gold-plating of the grid, you know, our utilities want to spend as much capital as they can because they get good returns from us on that... NIPSCO in particular, now they're the highest residential bills, electric bills in the whole state," said Washburn.
Washburn is the Regulatory Director and the in-house counsel for the CAC before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC).
Utilities like NIPSCO must go before the IURC for rate increases. The latest for NIPSCO was in Sept. 2024. NIPSCO requested a $369 million to its electric base rate revenue from the IURC.
In Feb. 2025, NIPSCO settled for a lower $257 million hike to the current revenues. It was approved by the IURC in June 2025 and set to be fully implemented by March 2026.
"Unfortunately, you know, CAC can't stop the next phase of rates, even though we did oppose the settlement, the rate increase last year. So, we're upset that it's still coming, but it's coming," shared Washburn.
Similar to July 2024, when the IURC approved a $120.9 million annual base rate increase in gas revenue for NIPSCO, which was fully implemented by March of 2025, a part of people's increase.
"The IURC really is what's called a creature of statute if you will. They operate under the granted them by the Indiana General Assembly, and I think folks need to understand that it's those 150 people in the Indiana legislature that set the policy that governs what the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission can or cannot do and we need, we need some radical change over there," expressed Olson.
Chapman is a lifelong republican but said her party lines are blurring as she believes the scales are tipping toward utilities in Indianapolis.
"I've gotten really mad, because the more I learn, it's been really difficult and I feel... I feel very betrayed by my state officials," said Chapman.
She's not the only one citing recent laws, like House Bill 1007, signed by Governor Braun in May. It includes establishing procedures that say when growth hits a specific threshold, certain utilities can request approval from the IURC to speed up a generation resource (EGR) plan. It's created by the utility to get more generation resources to meet growth.
However, NIPSCO is a NiSource company, and they got approval from the IURC in Sept. 2025 to create NIPSCO Generation LLC (GenCo). They explain it operates as a separate entity to keep customers from the costs that go along with new data center customers.
Then there's House Bill 1002, called the Electric Utility Affordability Bill. It's aimed at providing some help and has passed from the Indiana House to the Senate. Olson said it's a good bill but doesn't go far enough.
"It does a really good job of focusing in on those vulnerable populations in terms of providing them assistance dollars in terms of protecting them from disconnections in summer heat, but the bill itself, doesn't really speak to affordability generally for all customers," said Olson.
He says they're still working to make HB1002 better for customers. He said this is a quick legislative session, so he doesn't know what can be accomplished in the short term.
"I've never quite seen this focus if you will on affordability, on consumers. As I said, it's been so focused on the financial health of the utilities, while we've ignored the financial help of customers, so I'm optimistic anyway with the direction that the conversation is going," shared Olson.
"They know they got to do better. And it's up to them to give us a reliable supply of electricity, take advantage of economic growth, but not on the back of existing businesses and households," said Governor Mike Braun in a January 28th interview with ABC57.
Governor Braun explained he replaced three of the five commissioners on the IURC, officially taking their seats on Jan. 12. He said the other two are up for re-appointment or replacement in a year or so, saying Hoosiers have been burdened by unnecessary utility rate increases for too long.
"And I'm already ahead of that to make sure that our five investor-owned utilities get that message clearly... We all need to pay attention to it because affordability is the issue that most people are concerned with," said Governor Braun.
People are left with questions. Several comments on the Facebook page 'NIPSCO Monopoly Madness' asked if the recent meter switch impacted their bill.
In 2024, NIPSCO began switching from its Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system to an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system. They started replacing system parts on nearly 500,000 electric meters and nearly 900,000 gas modules for customers in 2024 and will conclude this year.
Then in Nov. 2025, the IURC's general counsel, Beth Heline, asked the Commission to open an investigation. While in a meeting with NIPSCO staff, she explained they said there was an issue found with a "not-insignificant" number of natural gas meters when replacing the system from AMR to AMI, resulting in "billing discrepancies". She Said NIPSCO did provide bill credits to customers, but without an explanation.
"It's a concern absolutely for the NIPSCO gas customers, I understand the commission has opened an investigation," said Washburn.
The IURC is investigating any issues with the gas meters, reviewing the billing discrepancies, how NIPSCO communicated to customers on the issue, the effect on NIPSCO's rates and revenues, and the appropriate customer credits or refunds.
"We will be paying close attention to that and weighing in as we can. We're glad the commission noticed and is trying to take action and provide relief," said Washburn.
NIPSCO said this issue was discovered during the switching of systems, not due to the new technology, and tells us it only affects a small percentage of gas users.
The IURC's investigation is pending. A prehearing conference was held on Jan. 15, and it's set for an evidentiary hearing on July second in Indianapolis.
"It's important that folks communicate with the right people. That's their state senator, their state representative, and then of course the regulators, and the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor. I understand the frustrations and the anger, but you want to direct your comments, direct your frustrations to the folks that can hold the utilities accountable," said Olson.
ABC57 has been in close contact with NIPSCO to get an interview with CEO Vince Parisi, and after weeks of communication, NIPSCO explained Parisi's schedule did not have room for a chat, but did offer an interview at a later date that ABC57 accepted. We also reached out to the office of Governor Bruan for a more recent interview or statement but got no answer in return.
Resources:
- NIPSCO Billing Programs and Financial Support
- Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC)
- Energy Assistance Program