Indiana Regulators Approve $1B NIPSCO Upgrade Plan
Posted
Staff Report-
MERRILLVILLE — State regulators approved on Monday Northern Indiana Public Service Co.’s plan to spend more than $1 billion over the next seven years on its electrical network, funded largely by gradual rate increases. Rate increases could reach a cumulative total of 6 percent as the Merrillville-based utility modernizes much of its electrical infrastructure, the (Munster) Times reports. NIPSCO estimates rates for its 457,000 electricity customers will rise 0.5 percent in 2015 and then about 1 percent per year through 2020 under the plan approved Monday, according to the Associated Press. Those increases will cover 80 percent of the cost of the improvements under a state law approved last year that allows utilities to add surcharges to utility bills for basic infrastructure improvements. The surcharge will apply only to the electric portion of customers’ bills. The Times reports the upgrades include replacing 450 miles of underground electric cable, rebuilding 500 miles of electric circuits and replacing 75 substation transformers and 900 circuit breakers. Construction on NIPSCO’s $270 million project to install 100 miles of new transmission lines connecting substations in Reynolds, Burr Oak and Topeka is planned for late this year, and the lines are expected to be in service by 2018. The new lines, which will closely follow existing transmission lines, will go through Kosciusko County just south of Milford.
