Customers upset with NIPSCO over pricing and policies got a chance Tuesday to ask the experts about their concerns.
About 30 to 40 people showed up at the Porter County Expo Center for the event, Communications Manager Jessica Cantarelli said.
Journalists weren’t allowed inside the room Tuesday to protect the privacy of customers discussing personal issues with NIPSCO staff, but people leaving the event could be interviewed in the lobby afterward.
Dawn Cornett, of Lake Station, said he was looking for help with her 78-year-old mother’s most recent bill.
When her mom’s $372 bill arrived, “she just about had a heart attack,” Cornett said.
Of that amount, $169 was for delivery charges.
“I understand. It’s a big business,” Cornett said, but her mom’s finances are constrained.
There’s help for senior citizens who need it, but only if their account is in arrears, Cornett learned. She put in an application for her mother anyway, in case it helps make the case for other ways to help senior citizens.
Cornett’s mother, a Porter resident, didn’t retire as a trucking industry dispatcher until she was in her 70s. Cornett works at U.S. Steel and could afford her $472 bill, she said, even though it was the highest she had had.
“I keep my house at 64, so it’s not like I’m crazy,” she said. “I’m just glad I didn’t build a bigger house.”
Ericka Shepherd, of Valparaiso, brought her infant to the Expo Center event. “I appreciate that they’re trying to be kind and helpful, but they’re not changing anything,” she said.
“My husband and I haven’t been on a date in four months because I can’t even afford it,” she said.
Shepherd works three days a week as a dog groomer, making as much as some in that field do in five days. “My job is taxing,” she said.
“I waited a long time to have the life I wanted” – dream home, husband, family – but the NIPSCO bill has her worried.
Joan Marinello, of Valparaiso, is an activist. “NIPSCO is a monopoly,” she said. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“They are not a philanthropic organization,” but give money to nonprofits, “yet they have a list as long as your arm of people who can’t pay their bills.”
“They need to lower their rates,” Marinello said.
NIPSCO leaders’ wages irked her. “The U.S. Supreme Court, the president of the United States don’t get what this guy is getting,” she said, and 75 people she called the NIPSCO president’s support staff all make over $100,000 annually.
“Why are rates so high?”
She took to task the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, which sets the rates utilities like NIPSCO can charge. “What we need on the commission are retired and young married people with children,” Marinello said.
Steve and Debbie Bennett, of Hebron, said they went to the event just to gather information.
“We’ve had high bills before,” Debbie said. “We expect higher bills in the winter, and it’s been a cold winter. We have inflation, too.”
Steve is concerned about “energy-consuming monsters” like data centers and freezers for cold-storage facilities.
“I would be happy to get rid of coal,” Debbie said, but she’s concerned that solar farms and windmills won’t generate enough power to meet consumer demands.
NIPSCO is turning its Wheatfield coal-fired plant into a natural gas plant to meet consumer needs and be prepared for peak demand times.
Marc Szczepanski, of Knox, owns a sign shop in Valparaiso. He is fighting NIPSCO in court over a fire at his shop in September 2022.
“I went in with an open mind. I’m not a judgmental type of person,” he said.
“I see so many discrepancies in people’s bills, but it looks like your usage is the same,” Szczepanski said. “A lot of stuff just doesn’t make sense.”
“I feel bad for a lot of people,” he said. “The gas infrastructure has not changed for eons.”
Cantarelli shared a handout given to the customer care center attendees that explains what goes into calculating delivery charges. That amount includes the more than 18,000 miles of natural gas pipelines and seven interstate supply connections, as well as maintaining them 24/7.
“It’s a massive system” that spans the northern third of Indiana.
‘We understand that delivery charges have been such a huge source of confusion for people,” Cantarelli said.
Natural gas is a commodity, so the cost of the gas fluctuates throughout the year depending on the market for it.
“NIPSCO is my biggest bill,” Szczepanski said, since he owns his own home and the building where his business is housed.
He used to have bills of $100 to $300 a month but received one for over $1,000. “I’m OK with it if there was an explanation for it,” he said. “My neighbor, his bill is half what mine are.”
Inside the Expo Center room were booths for customers to meet with subject area experts. Szczepanski and some others were expecting more of a public meeting-type event.
“It’s like a frickin’ sales event in there,” Szczepanski said.
Szczepanski said he has helped others pay their NIPSCO bills. “I can’t imagine having to come up with rent money on top of these bills,” he said.
NIPSCO held a similar event in LaPorte on Monday, addressing questions from around 100 people over three hours.
Cantarelli said, “98% would walk away with some kind of resolution, support in place. In general, we wanted folks to come and get that personal service,” she said.
NIPSCO has 1.4 million customers – 500,000 for electricity and 900,000 for natural gas, with some overlap where customers have both. It serves 32 counties, East Chicago to Fort Wayne, Cantarelli said.
A similar event will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at the Dean and Barbara White Community Center, 6600 Broadway in Merrillville.
Customers who cannot attend can visit NIPSCO.com/ConnectingYou or call (800) 464-7726 and receive the same assistance.
“We want them to feel heard,” Cantarelli said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
