IURC opens formal probe of NIPSCO after August derecho left 387,010 dark

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun. U.S. Department of Homeland Security / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun. U.S. Department of Homeland Security / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Cause 46453 arrived with a stamp of Sept. 22. Inside the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission's order sits a number Northwest Indiana already lived through: 387,010 NIPSCO electric customers knocked offline when a historic derecho and follow-on storms tore through the utility's territory the week of Aug. 11.

That count comes from the regulators themselves, citing NIPSCO's own filing. The Merrillville-based utility told the commission the derecho produced "the most widespread service impact" to its roughly 500,000 electric customers "in known customer history." On Tuesday the commission answered with a formal investigation — Cause 46453 — into every practice and procedure NIPSCO used to restore power after those August storms.

An attorney's conference is set for Monday, Sept. 28, at 11:30 a.m. via Webex. The purpose, the order says, is to lock in a procedural schedule, including future evidentiary hearing dates and testimony deadlines. The public can watch on the commission's YouTube channel.

How the probe got opened

Gov. Mike Braun had already called for scrutiny of NIPSCO's storm response. On Aug. 25 the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor filed a verified petition asking the IURC to dig into restoration practices. NIPSCO answered three days later and, the order notes, "does not oppose" the OUCC petition.

The consumer counselor's office put the human stakes in blunt terms for WSBT 22: "Almost 400,000 NIPSCO customers found themselves without power after the August 11 storms, leaving hundreds of thousands of families without power for an unacceptable amount of time. The OUCC takes these matters seriously and looks forward to investigating this issue with a fine-toothed comb."

Local television across the Region amplified the Sept. 22 order on Thursday. WSBT, WNDU, and ABC57 all reported the formal probe, with coverage ranging from LaPorte and Pulaski counties to Gary, where some residents were out for two weeks.

What the docket will examine

Local reporting and the commission's filing path line up on the same checklist: how many customers lost power, what infrastructure broke, how restoration and mutual aid played out, what communications went to customers and local governments, vegetation management, and how NIPSCO monitored weather leading into and through the event.

WSBT dug into NIPSCO's reliability paper trail and flagged a ratepayer question hanging over the docket. The OUCC noted NIPSCO was authorized for about $2 billion in infrastructure improvements in 2016 and has spent just over $200 million on vegetation management since. The station said it is still waiting on NIPSCO's accounting of the rest of that capital program.

NIPSCO's answer so far

In a statement to ABC57, the company called the weather "an unprecedented storm that caused extraordinary damage across northern Indiana" and said it is "committed to cooperating with the IURC in the investigation, including providing information regarding our storm preparation and response, as well as our operations and ongoing efforts to serve our customers safely and reliably."

NIPSCO's Aug. 28 response to the OUCC, summarized by WSBT, also framed the week as more than a single derecho: Northwest Indiana "endured several additional powerful and damaging storms in the following days." Separately, the utility told the station an investigation would help the commission, other utilities, and Hoosiers "better understand and prepare for the growing threat that historic weather presents to the industry."

Gary's mayor, Eddie D. Melton, backed the probe in a statement carried by ABC57, citing two-week outages in his city and calling for accountability on preparedness, infrastructure, reliability, communication, and restoration. The IURC, for its part, told WSBT it cannot comment on a pending investigation so the process stays impartial.

Monday's Webex conference is the first public scheduling stop, not the last word. Northern Indiana ratepayers who paid for reliability while sitting in the dark now get a docket number, a calendar, and a record that will have to explain how 387,010 accounts went dark — and how long it took to bring them back.

Sources: IURC Cause 46453 order (PDF); WSBT 22 report; WNDU report; ABC57 report.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.